The Hero's Home

                *Prologue*

-Present Day-

     The cold starry night sky was lit with orange sparks as Jake
Clawson stood atop the framework of metal, welder in paw and smelling
of singed fur. He worked next to the iron foundation posts of what
looked like a low skyscraper and the scattered salvage heaps of the
yard lay gathered around his creation, as if they sat in tribute to
some higher being than themselves. Stepping back from the iron
skeleton in front of him, Jake shut down his equipment and pushed his
protective goggles off of his face and into his pocket. His eyes
scanned the structure for flaws or cracks and a slight smile flashed
across his stony features as his work passed review. The
building-to-be dominated the salvage yard with its sheer size. The
metal structure stretched up for about three levels and was as long
as the average department store. But whenever customers questioned
the better-organized pile of junk in the yard, he simply waved it off
as a house he was building for a friend.

     "Good thing nobody lives close enough to be bothered by a kat
and his late night hobby." Jake muttered to himself as he began to
load his tools back into their carrier. The biting October wind dug
it's own claws into his skin, but he didn't really notice it anymore.
The cold in the air would never again compare to the cold in his
heart. He spoke to himself often these days. Sure, it was a nutty
habit, but it was always better than letting the silence of the
garage sink in as he worked on the cars alone.... 

     "Main supports are complete, now.... gotta connect some walls to
it tomorrow night. What did Callie say that car needed help on? Oh
yeah, that coolant block...." His eyes scanned the dark yard for any
other signs of forgotten importances. His eyes rested on the run down
dump truck by the entrance as another task, and a few depressing
memories, resurfaced in his tired, sad mind.

     "Gotta go pick up that next load of garbage from Murry...."
     
     Sighing, he brushed the dirt and dust from his coveralls and
picked up the tool carrier, walking back to the garage door. Just as
he was about to close the door behind him, though, he found himself
staring back at the mess of beams across the yard.  Suddenly, as the
bright moonlight poured out from behind the heavy cloud cover, the
whole pile of steel and tin seemed to glow with a magical quality all
it's own, and Jake felt somewhere inside of him a touch of pride at
the sight before he shut himself back into his empty home. 

     "It's gonna be great, Chance. I promise."

                *Chapter 1*

-2040-

     Rory Tailor shut down the shields on his car and set it down on
vertical fans as three Enforcer troopers came running at him. The
three chattering kats gathered around him in a tight knot and the
constant questions were enough to make Rory want to hide in the back
seat under the cushions in the hollowed out foxhole. Why not? He
thought glumly. This is not an attitude to have at six am on company
time, he chided himself as he waded out into the chaos. The wind of
the cold October morning ruffled through his thick dark brown, maybe
even black, fur and hair, both frosted with a fair dose of gray, from
the work, of course. His dark green eyes had barely focused on the
scene in front of him before he noticed a few more stragglers running
towards him for instructions. Sighing slowly in frustration at having
to direct their every movement, as if they were mindless cleaning
droids, he straightened his uniform and marched quickly through the
living roadblocks, ignoring them for the moment, over to the nearest
officer he saw in sight. She had on her Enforcer uniform and thick
shielding like a hundred other kats in sight, but he easily
identified the owner of that cropped dark auburn hair and fur and
smiled for the first time since getting up. Only one officer in his
memory had chosen royal purple as the color for her personal
shielding. One Enforcer decision he was actually proud of, and he was
positive he would never have recognized all of his own officers
without their own colors. The one he was striding towards was
currently yelling at four of her unit to remove the katizens from the
area, she did not seem pleased with her morning at all. Quickening
his pace and putting his growing grin in check, Rory stepped right up
behind the she-kat and tapped her solidly on her right shoulder. 

     "Katrina?"

     She whirled on him, her violet eyes flashing angrily for a
moment at the interruption and lack of her proper title but, just as
quickly, they registered her surprise as she stepped back from him in
respect. 

     "Commander Tailor! Good to see you. Have you been briefed on the
situation at hand?" He silently groaned as he saw that she was going
to play it the professional way today...and shook his head quickly.
He understood why, of course. The troopers....

     "Not yet, Lt. Commander Sheer. I had just climbed into my car to
head to work, when the alarm goes off, and the car starts traveling
here on the Enforcer main computer's say-so." As they moved away
together away from the patrols, he shook his head disgustedly.

     "I should never have installed that blasted auto-steer,
Katrina..." He heard her chuckle as he melodramatically covered his
face with a huge paw. Having broken the ice of duty between two close
friends, he immediately reset himself to be the stern "Commander" for
all the surrounding troopers. 

     "Get me a link back to headquarters and I'll check the reports."
She nodded briskly, but smiled to him and they both lifted up the
doors on their sides of his car. Sitting inside, in the driver's
seat, she quickly removed a thin shielded case from under the seat
and began unwinding the black insulated cord attached to the back
before she plugged the end of the cord into a nickel-sized socket on
the car's electronic dashboard. She ran her fingers lightly along the
side of the case shielding and, with loud click, unlocked it. She
raised the top portion into position and her claws began to demand
information from the laptop keyboard at a rapid pace. To his
surprise, the reports she had requested from the main computer 
came quickly into view on the monitor. 

     "It must have been some serious trouble out here to have that
mess of hardware giving it proper priority for...." Katrina
interrupted him as she pushed the laptop into his lap and corrected a
rather hopeful assumption of his.

     "Not must have been, sir. Still is. The computer only has it in
surface memory because the bulletin just went out within the
half-hour. Just in time for your auto-steer to pick it up." She
watched calmly as his eyes quickly scanned the reports, and then
smirked slightly as they widened in surprise at the end of the report
statement.


     "You mean you have Viper in there? Trapped in there? We have a
chance at finally slamming the doors on that mutated sicko?" She
grinned at him and nodded.  

     "That's the good news. From the looks of it. Purvis is
surrounded in there. But the situation goes a little downhill from
there." Rory nodded quietly and cursed the fact that nothing was ever
that easy or simple anymore...

     "Originally, we thought this had been some setup he'd kept handy
for awhile. You know....a building old enough to still tap into the
old sewer system and all....But for the past hour that we've had it 
surrounded, reports have come from all sides of this giant that
troopers have been seeing Viper appear at windows, throwing things at
them and throwing his body at the glass, as if...." She dwindled off, 
apparently rethinking her words herself, even then, before she spoke
them. But the Commander had the idea already, puzzling though it may
be.

     "As if trying to escape....and they didn't break?" She shook her
head quickly.
 

     "Not a scratch. This antique place has more to it than we even
thought." Rory's mind raced as he began to slowly, then more steadily
building up his pace as his thoughts increased in speed, type in 
request after request for information about the old place. Each one
came back from zoning as a denial. The computer maintained that since
no building had been authorized to be built there, then there was no 
building there. Finally, more than a little frustrated, he queried
about the owner of the land. The answer startled him to no end. 

     "We own that unholy piece of rubbish!? That land is Enforcer
property. Why did we never sell it off as the city expanded out
here?" Katrina  shrugged, then took back the keyboard and began
typing his requests for him as he spoke. He leaned back and watched,
happy for the physical break and more than willing to let the faster
typist handle this. Soon enough, her glazed eyes refocused and she
fixed him with a hard look.

     "It was a salvage yard for our surplus back in the late 20th
century. Put under long-term management of a pair of  Enforcers...."
Her eyes returned to their busy compiling of information and he
realized in surprise that *this* was the hunt for her. To coax and
prod the information and mysteries to their source, the answer. The
invasion of computers had left some of the Enforcers sitting in the
dirt or retreating back to city patrols, but it had also bred itself
a new generation of net surfers and code crackers determined to 
keep the peace as they best knew how.  Rory had always seen her
ability to adapt and survive while staying on top of trouble as a
fantastic trait. The minute her nomination by the Commodore had come
up he had jumped at the chance to have this intelligent, wily she-kat
as his second in command. 

     "Yep...Jacob Clawson and Chance Furlong. Condemned here to work
off some damage to Enforcer headquarters they caused on duty." She
grimaced in sympathy at the thought of being left behind, out of 
the action and in the scrap pile. Glancing back at the screen a
moment, a light smile lit her face.

     "Hey, Tailor, guess what windbag gave the order for their
expulsion? The good Vice Admiral Feral himself, back in his days as
Commander. Hey, don't give me that look. I know it's disrespect to a 
superior officer, but I'll be damned if I'll give that wasted bag of
dignity anything else." She sighed as Rory fixed a stern glare on her
and motioned with a paw for her to continue. 

     "It'd be a good guess to say those two built that old place.
Reports from their supervisors say that Clawson had the brain to put
it together and Furlong had the muscle to help him. " Rory nodded
quietly from his seat, piecing  what parts he had together. 

     "And reports on them now?" She had been typing for a few moments
when suddenly her face fell, almost as if  her spirit had been
deflated. 

     "Chance Furlong died here in '97 of fatal head injuries in a
fistfight with a salvage delivery kat, and Dr. Jake Clawson had heart
failure in his sleep in '38 in....the Megakat Mountains? Seems the
minute he paid off their debt, he shot out of this city like his tail
was on fire. Spent some time finishing college then teaching near
Pumadyne then curled up as a hermit in the mountains. Was found by a
she-kat that usually delivered supplies to him. We won't get any
answers from two ghosts, sir." She closed the terminal and unplugged
it, then replaced the laptop beneath the seat. Pressing a button, she
opened both doors and motioned for him to climb out. When they were
both standing outside the car, he moved around to the back and opened
the truck. She watched him curiously as he pulled out his own
shielding and blaster, along with his electronics belt system. He
locked the thick slate blue shielding, his own personal color, onto
his shoulders, then latched the shoulder plates to the chest and back
cover, before connecting both to the thigh and calf covers. He
snapped the belt into place, slipped his blaster into the holster on
the side, and, with a quick flip of a claw, brought to beeping and
whirring life the hand-sized electronics unit attached to the front.
Commander Tailor didn't really remember all of the technicals, but 
he did know that the battery pack of the unit would add extra power
to his shields when under attack and that it could keep his blaster
recharged for a couple of  days, at least. 

     "That's all I needed to know. Time for me to head in after
Viper, Lt. Commander." Even he had to wince at the look in her eyes
as he placed his helmet on. Deep green eyes echoing his own doubts
and queries and fears about a 20th century building that had engraved
terror onto the features of the immortally mutated mad scientist.
Swallowing  hard and, praying to a god almost forgotten in the 
modern science of the world, Rory nodded grimly and lowered the visor
over his face. As he moved swiftly towards the front door of that
huge front surface, his intent was clear in his very stride and the 
mess of troopers in his way seemed to part before him. Rory was
slightly disgusted at this deviation from procedure. As he reached
the building, only a single Enforcer was left standing guard. His
pale orange shielding and dyed blond fur and natural blond hair
brought to mind a particular lieutenant, Briggs, with a photographic
memory and a sharp mind. He seemed to understand the situation in
front of him as he scanned up and down the shielding and uniform for
irregularities from the usual. Rory was truly impressed by the proper
procedure this trooper went through before allowing an officer into
an area. Finally, satisfied that this was indeed the real Commander
Rory Tailor of the Megakat City Enforcers the lieutenant raised his
visor to look him curiously in the eye.

     "Your orders, sir?" Rory permitted a slight smile to escape his
grim mask as he nodded to the Enforcer. 

     "Just moving in for the arrest, lieutenant." The young kat's
eyes widened slightly but he merely nodded to his commanding officer. 

     "Yes sir. And your external assistance kat is, sir?" Rory again
noted this lieutenant in his mind for special assignment. Good
question ... very good question. 

     "Lt. Commander Sheer will be monitoring my systems at all times
I am inside and will respond as she sees fit to any irregularities."
He looked up to meet Katrina's gaze from a few feet away. She smiled
and nodded. More assured, he continued. 

     "As her attention will be focused on my activities inside,
command now falls on you, Lieutenant Briggs in the absence of her
orders. Keep them busy...." Briggs again seemed surprised but merely 
smiled, lowered his visor and  lifted his blaster from its holster.
Rory nodded to him and repeated the gesture. When all troopers in the
area stood ready for any sign of danger, Briggs gripped the brass 
doorknob of that huge wooden door and turned it. 

     The door opened, without a creek, but had only moved about a
crack the width of a bowling ball before stopping. Internally, Rory
groaned about having to fit his armored bulk through that slot, but 
simply nodded to his Enforcers.  Inhaling deeply, and a little
self-consciously at that, he took the next few minutes squeezing and
shoving his body through the hole and around the doorknob. 

     He was halfway through, his eyes almost past the doorway when
suddenly, as if on cue, the door slammed open all the way, flinging
Rory into the space beyond before slamming shut again with a
resounding "CRASH!" The moment he hit the ground the commander was up
again, tensed, ready to spring but before he could even absorb his
surroundings he heard the chaos and yelling from the other side of
the door.

     "HOLD YOUR FIRE!" came the muffled order of Lt. Briggs. "I SAID
HOLD YOUR FIRE!" Suddenly, as quickly as it had begun, the noise
level was simply cut off, as if some sort of curtain had come between
him and the outside world. Truth be told, it frightened Rory. He was
about to yell, to take command, to make it all right again like he
always wanted to do when he realized that it didn't matter anymore
what happened out there....he wasn't the Commander anymore. Just
another Enforcer out to bust another bad guy. The feeling was strange
to him....but welcome. Letting his duties slip away for once, Rory
Tailor, Enforcer, began to investigate. He laid his hand upon the
wooden door in front of him.... 

     ...And jumped as his paw came back stung from the bitter cold he
felt there. Doing some quick math in his head he thought about how
much steel it would take to absorb that much cold from the fall air 
outside. That door wouldn't fall if his entire force outside fired at
it until their ran out of juice. He felt a tingle of fear race up his
spine, warning sirens going off in his mind that he was
trapped...trapped...trapped. Quickly he shushed the terror that
threatened him. It wouldn't help, he told himself. It would only slow
you down. Don't think about how to get out. Think about Viper. How  
much you want to get that one. How much you want to slap the manacles
on that sicko. How trapped he is. These thoughts refocused him, as
they always did and for the first time since he had entered the 
building, Commander Rory Tailor turned and looked around him. 

     The sight left him without words. The bland exterior had
suggested a factory, or maybe even a storage shack, but not
this....The ceiling had to be at least 10 feet above him, with a
small but tasteful chandelier hanging down over the entranceway. The
carpet underneath his feet was dark red and two mirrors framed in
some dark wood, Rory didn't recognize it, hung on either side of a
doorway in the wall right in front of him. The foyer wasn't very
long, just big enough for Rory to have fallen in, and continued on
into two dark areas to the left and the right. The walls surrounding
Rory were a very nice shade of cream. This all would have been
startling enough for one day if not for the fact that it was all 
completely spotless. Rory walked over to one of the mirrors and ran
one claw along the top lightly. No dust. Or at least certainly not
enough for over 30 years disuse. He shook his head for a moment, 
absorbing......and reabsorbing.....and finally hoping that it would
make sense sometime before he had to turn in his report to the
Commodore and the main computer. Deciding that it was best not to
think to hard in a situation such as this, he simply moved forward,
gripped the doorknob in front of him, and smoothly opened the door. 
 
     Rory stood with the door open for a moment, staring into yet
another impenetrable black space before him, pondering the typical
bad omens one should pay attention to after one gets out of bed, when
he suddenly noticed a whine emitting from the space in front of him.
It hadn't just started, but had probably been building for a moment
or  two before he finally noticed it. As it swiftly grew louder in
volume and higher in pitch, Rory's instincts screamed that he should
not simply be standing there holding the door knob like your average
store-brand idiot at a moment like this. Just as the  noise, and the
instinctive siren, had built itself to a fevered pitch, Rory slammed
himself flat on the floor, only to see a high powered laser blast
sear the air where his head had been moments ago!

     Within seconds his blaster was out and shooting about where he
thought the whine had come from. The object  inside, whatever it was,
went up almost instantly in a ball of flame and Rory opted for the 
tried and true method of  "sit still until further action is
necessary." He kneeled on the carpet, shielding from any further
attacks until he was positive he had knocked whatever it was out of
operation. Rising slowly, he nodded, noting to himself one piece of
evidence for this theory. No whine. Once standing he moved slowly
towards the area the blast had come from, but circling away from  his
previous dead center position. By the light of the still slightly
burning device he noticed that the room it sat in was the size of 
a small half-bathroom, tiny and painted the same cream color as the
rest of the foyer. The remains of the weapon itself suggested it was
a tiny laser cannon mounted on a long pole to place it at head level
and, even as Rory watched, the pole and slag resting on top of it
quickly slid into the floor through a hole.
 
     "SH*T!" Rory made a dive for but couldn't catch the trap before
it escaped out of his grasp. And to make matters worse, when he
searched the floor for signs of the trapdoor he found nothing, not
even the edges of the opening. It was as if it had never even
existed. Heaving a melodramatic sigh that he was pretty sure he had
earned at this point, Rory stood up and moved out of the tiny room,
unconsciously, yet courteously shutting the door behind him. This
left him with two choices in front of him, or more accurately, to the
sides of him. He could chose the black to the left or the black to
the right. He chuckled to himself at this lack of any choice and
muttered, 
 
     "Well, Mrs. Wray always taught me in drama class to exit a
comedy at stage left." And with that, he turned left and walked
quickly into the darkness.

     Though it was difficult to see, with the light filtering in from
the foyer he had just left Rory did manage to understand that in
front of him was a larger area with a mass wider than himself moving 
upwards in a slant. Cautiously, he shifted his feet forward, one at a
time, waving his blaster slowly back and forth before he felt a
slight jarring and froze. He tapped it in the proper direction a few
more times and smiled. The object was made of a nice safe wood. With
this in mind, he replaced his blaster into its holder and heard the
faint whir click that signaled the auto recharge had begun. 

     After a moment's investigation, and a great few more of wary
poking and prodding, he voted that before him stood a carpeted
staircase leading up in...he did have a single clue. There was
nothing else in the room besides this set of stairs and it didn't
take the instincts of an Enforcer Commander to vote that this too,
was a trap. Rory sighed and looked around once more for any other
options that he had besides  up and back. Nope. That settled, every
muscle in his body tensed in fight or flight as he set his right foot
gingerly on the first step...
 
     ...and nothing happened. Rory pushed a bit more weight onto that
foot, testing. Still nothing. The trial progressed up this way,
testing every step with varied amounts of pressure and a wash of
relief when this wasn't the step that killed him. He allowed himself
a small smile, no more than a crease in his face before taking that
final step, off the stairs onto a platform, before realizing that the
space in front of him was no bigger than the size of his body and
completely empty. Rory was wary but puzzling this over to himself,
one thing perfectly clear. The stairs had only been a trick. Bait.
But for what. Before he could blink, only enough time to inhale
sharply in surprise, the top platform that Rory's shoe rested on
tilted up at a frighteningly steep angle and the speed the plate shot
up with sent Rory flying backwards through the air, that gasp still
caught in his throat. Thinking quickly, he closed his eyes and braced
himself for impact with the stairs and grunted in pain at the heavy
contact of wood and carpet along his left side. But then the
sensation changed, a suddenly lurch and the surface underneath him,
the stairway itself, broke apart with the sound of loud cracking and
tearing. Rory felt his body falling, falling, and then the world 
simply stopped in a short, ugly blast of pain....

                *Interlude*

        Lieutenant Briggs felt his heart fly up and lodge itself
firmly in his throat. He had just been staring at that door, he had
been perfectly ready to grab the Commander and haul him back out of
harm's way. So why was he gone? I failed. I failed. I failed when he
was trusting me. I could see it. These thoughts buzzed around his
mind like a hive of angry bees, and when his haze cleared, it took
him a moment more to realize that the rest of the troops, not hearing
an order from him, the current commanding officer, were firing at the
door.


        "HOLD YOUR FIRE! I SAID HOLD YOUR FIRE!" The sound emerged
loud and powerful, heard well over the sounds of weaponry and echoing
around the enclosed scrap yard to draw every kat's eye. If he hadn't
been so caught up in the adrenaline punch of the second, Christopher
Briggs might have noticed the approving nod of Lieutenant Commander
Katrina Sheer, and the conspiratory wink of his partner in "crime"
Marshell Cassidy. And in the silence, quiet, shy, Enforcer clerk
Christopher Briggs found not only a voice, but a power.

        "That's better. Not much good it'll do us if we blast a hole
through that door and the Commander at the same time, will it?" There
was a grating edge, almost a growl in his voice that no trooper's 
attention missed. A few glances passed back and forth as those
jealous for the position reconsidered their own stature to that of
the "bookworm" or "deskjockey". A blond furred claw extended directly
at four other Lieutenants present and the orders began pouring forth
fast and furious.

        "Lieutenant Oliver, Lieutenant Homer, Lieutenant Crystel, and
Lieutenant Borgeson meet me over at the Southern perimeter corner for
a planning session. Lieutenant Xar, keep a hold on this here. 
Dismissed!" The final word cracked out like a whip over the heads of
the large gathering of Enforcers, sending them into action. Even his
peers had to appreciate Lieutenant Brigg's grasp of the job of 
commanding officer. And as he moved calmly through the crowd towards
the southern corner few noticed the sparkle in his eye and the
surprised smile under his light layer of pale blond whiskers. Fewer 
still heard the murmur under his breath, "Maybe you were right Mom.
Maybe I can be a leader after all."

                *Chapter 2*

     Katrina had just settled down in front of the monolithic piece
of hardware known as a System Monitor of Enforcer Vitality or a
S.M.E.V. (for brevity or idiocy she often wondered) when the 
Commander readied his blaster and stepped up to the door of the
building. The S.M.E.V. was anything but easily portable and only
hauled out for important cases when either the safety of an arresting
enforcer or the danger of a cornered criminal or environment were in
question. This situation fulfilled all three requirements. She smiles
to him warmly, hoping this token of caring could offer him a measure
of protection then turned in her seat to bring all the important
charts up into view. This included the heart and lung monitor in the
main armor casing, the helmet's brainwave recorder, and the graph of
current hormone levels from the occasional blood sample drawn from
the stomach area, the pinprick almost unnoticeable to the
bruise-taught bodies of the Enforcers. All checked out normal,
slightly raised heart rate she noticed, but hell, who wouldn't be a
little nervous heading into that kind of a mess. And after Viper, no
less, she thought.  

     The Lieutenant Commander was checking a few other monitors
running in the background when she heard a violently loud clang of
metal against metal and chaos erupted among the Enforcers around the 
building behind her. She whirled around to see what was going on  and
instantly was forced to shield her eyes from the glare of many
blasters being fired at the heavy front door at once. When the
immediate brightness was gone and only vague spots remained floating
on the background of splayed auburn hair , she understood with a
sickening stomach lurch that Rory was nowhere in sight and Lt. Briggs
was working to calm the agitated troops. Panic seized the energetic
she-kat as she realized she had already been distracted from her
assigned monitor post too long and was back facing the S.M.E.V. in a
flash to check her medical charts, sighing in relief as the only
noticeable difference was a spike in adrenaline, understandably. She
leaned back with a smile and a sigh at this personal view she
received of the great Commander Rory Tailor's battle fears before
deciding to put herself to a better use, turning on the audio 
alarms on the medical monitors and quickly retrieving Rory's thin
laptop from his unlocked car.
     
     The usual clicks and snaps of setup were repeated, Katrina
allowing herself a toothy grin as the small green glow behind the
screen  flared to ever-so-informative life. As she worked, Lt. Briggs
approached her left side so quietly she might have been startled if
not for her own combat-tight nerves. Even so, if not for the light
sound  of his throat clearing positively ringing with submission to
her authority) her typing paws twitched violently on their keys
before the smaller she-kat spun to face him.

     "Yes?"

    	"Lt. Commander, the building has presented an impossibly
stable defensive front. It hasn't appeared to generate any shields,
but shows no damage to heavy blaster fire physical efforts on the
part of the troops." Katrina was forced to raise an eyebrows at this
comment, half from her surprise at the constant stream of surprises
that concrete mystery presented and half from the idea of *her*
Enforcer troopers putting even the smallest foot out of line. He hung
his head a bit in response to her look and understanding for the
younger officer finally broke through the haze of duty and worry that
was clouding her usually good judgement. Swallowing back the always
ready criticism for now, she placed a paw on his shoulder and waited
until Briggs was looking her in the eyes again.

     "It's okay. Seeing the Commander  slip out of their protection
will do that to kats trained as soldiers. It's even doing it to you,
I'll bet. Somewhere deep inside where you're pounding at some hidden
evil in the dark, gnashing your teeth and screaming for it to give
him up,  and pounding yourself for having not been looking at that
exact spot when he vanished of being too surprised to grab his arm
while you thought you had the chance." The young kat's eyes widened a
bit at her very accurate evaluation but went no farther in his
surprise, probably  having logically concluded that she had noted his
condition by naming what she herself was already feeling as well. And
for a moment eyes and minds met in a rather rare empathy before
Katrina's internal smile grew a notch more and she continued with her
lecture. "That psychological trick is how some of the best battles
have been and still are won. It's called checkmate. The Commander
left you in charge of these high-strung Enforcers and that makes you
their authority figure." 

     "But ma'am....!" Briggs's paws flew up in protest in less than a
second. Katrina timed him. She thought cheerfully, "Great reflexes.
Wrong reason, but that can be fixed. Anything can be fixed around 
here." Her voice cracked like an old model pistol shot. 

     "No buts, Lieutenant. As your superior I place you in charge of
this situation as per the last orders of Commander Tailor." The burly
young blond nodded his acceptance of the orders and Katrina felt it
was time to pull in on the reigns. "Now, I am in the position to give
you a recommendation on actions for the recovery of Purvis Viper and
Commander Tailor so listen good. The Commander's in there now, 
environmental situations unknown, the lead officer of arrest. If you
want him and Viper back you'll probably have to get them yourselves.
That is, ourselves. What is your preliminary plan of action?" 
While he did look as nervous as he deserved to be, Katrina noticed
that the mantle of authority settled well on his pale orange plated
shoulders, and the premonition hit her that if he proved as clear
headed and quick as he did steady under all this pressure he would
have a fine sterling career ahead of him in the Enforcers. Too bad he
wasn't a technology kat or she'd choose him for the next vacancy in
her squad. A light chuckle escaped her lips as she recalled her own
thoughts that anything can be fixed. The effect of his bewildered
expression staring back at her, a tough of fear and worry shaking his
whiskers randomly, was like a dip in an icy bath. All her dazing off
about the future wouldn't amount to much if they were ruined by
losing their own commander to a turn of the century factory! Her
sliding thoughts were snapped back to their proper attention  as the
Lieutenant began to voice his growing ideas with his typical 
edge of tentativeness.

      "Lieutenant Commander, you possess singular talents with
machinery and computers. I'd like you to focus on doing as much good
as possible with them while keeping a close eye on Commander Tailor's 
readings.  I will focus on breaching the outer walls of this
structure through a more organized means than has been previously
tried."
      
     Katrina was impressed with him and was about to say so when an
ear-splitting klaxon wailed out from the S.M.E.V. behind her,
shattering the morning calm that had just dared to reform. Her lungs
allowed her the air to call "DO IT!" to the retreating form of
Lieutenant Briggs before they demanded the startled gasp that escaped
her at the sight of the monitors. Rory's heart rate had doubled up to
a violent 160 and the adrenaline level alone in his system  would
have made her fur stand on end.
      
     "My Lord, what's he doing in there, wrestling a constructor
crane?" Further investigation proved the temperature around his
helmet region to have gone up 15 degrees...Someone is shooting at his
head, she thought grimly. Tense minutes passes as his and her pulse
and hormones dropped back into safe, if nervous, levels. Gritting her
teeth, the frustrated she-kat turned away from the S.M.E.V  and began
to pound at the enforcer code blocks to every telecommunications
outlet within a 3 block radius, working inward. She needed a signal
connector, any kind would do, even a binary modem system. As long as
it was in 100 feet of Rory she'd be able to pick up the video signal
on the helmet camera that her S.M.E.V's monitors assured her was
still perfectly operational....There! A signal pickup! And a beauty
too, she thought. She didn't even bother to question why such a
powerful line was connected to an ancient salvage line. She already
knew she wouldn't like the answer anyway. Her claws on the keyboard
mimicked those of a piano virtuoso in concert while inch after inch
of the previously well shielded line was laid bare on the monitor's
impromptu map. She allowed herself a brief flash of hope as it began
to curve off into a beeline for the building. Closer. . . 500 feet .
. . Rory's heart rate, now switched over to an audio pulser, was
rising again. So close to her goal, Katrina felt a sour sensation in
the back of her throat and keyed in the video monitor to accept any
signal, however faint, ruling out the standard parameters of
television and radio entertainment waves. 250 feet .  .  . and the
pulser sounded like the  percussion section to a jazz band. A quick
glance up granted her with the satisfaction of a camera view of . . .
stairs? That's all she thought she could dare guess at before the
laptop mapping reached 175 feet. 170 . . . 165 . . . 160 . . 
. 155 . . . 150 . . . . The klaxon went wild again, and if there had
been a collar around her neck, it would have had to be suddenly,
violently yanked to produce the spin she did. Too late, she realized
that almost all monitors were in the red zone . . . and the signals
from the brainwave monitor had ceased completely!  
	
	"No!" she cried before she could clamp her mouth shut. Be quiet,
she thought, be calm. Too many troopers and too little time. The
lieutenant checked the screen again to be sure and realized that 
autonomous functions were still in the green and low yellow levels.
"Alive, but unconscious. Great. I'll take what good I can get now."
She looked for the flickering camera image of stairs on the video
screen again but the picture was gone. In fact, no signal was being
received at all from the digital probe. "That's strange . . . the
line was a direct link in at last . . ." Her words ended abruptly as
she examined the laptop monitor again and  saw the small flashing
error message in the bottom left hand corner of her map. Connection
lost. She ran a claw over the screen, scanning for the line break
until her composure broke in a seething growl from deep in the
she-kat's throat. The breakage was located at the exact point 
of contact with the thick concrete walls . . . at 110 feet. 
      
     "Blast, Blast, Blast, and triple Blast more . . . ." In her
agitation she began muttering to herself as she worked, with a few
choice curses that would have raised blisters on a diamond.  "Must be
an interference system, operating around the parameter itself from
within. . ." Claws extended in her growing frustration she
click-clack-click-clacked her way across the keyboard and back into
some semblance of authority and control. Must be a heavy duty energy
supply to power the door robotics, defense system, and interference .
. . If I can just tap into the Megakat General Electric grid, I can
isolate it's drain and shut it down.  But that would take more
complicated  equipment than this site provided. Currently. Motioning 
over the nearest available trooper she rattled off her new list of
needs and sent them frantically on their way.  "Hoh, my boy's are
gonna  love me after this haul. Just hope they can find everything." 
     
     That settled, nothing more to do but wait, she turned her
attention back to Commander Tailor's medical charts . . . and choked
back a happy laugh. All charts were green and he was  apparently up
on his feet again. "Luck with you, sir." The S.M.E.V. was only giving
the surface details and Lt. Commander Katrina Sheer was much too
wired to trust surface details. She called up full armor diagnostics,
to check for damage . . . Odd, she thought. The full armor's
temperature was up 16 degrees, with even further pinpoint elevations
at the helmet and left hip. Those locations showed minor damage.
"Blaster fire?" She muttered this aloud, rhetorically of course. Also
the blast visor on the helmet had been lowered over the combat visor
. . . but to shield him from what? What was going on in that building
that she was getting hints of but couldn't control? A final check
showed higher levels of endorphins at the chest area than a heat rise
would produce, confirming internal injuries from the event that
knocked  him unconscious. 

	"Nothing broken though, thank heavens." She punched in an
administration of painkiller from the stomach medpack's minor
reserves and hoped for the best. More stressful minutes passed with
nothing more eventful than the utter terror produced in a random
trooper that brushed up against the hyper Lieutenant Commander and
startled her. She sent him to a medical advisor and decided the time
might be right to give herself a tranquilizer. 
      
     When this act of trooper preservation was complete she was back
in action again, staring anxiously at the S.M.E.V., punching up chart
after chart, checking every clue that looked like it might be useful,
some window as to what was going on in there. Though the search was
uneventful, due to the medication she was back to her cool, calm,
logical self in minutes. As she leaned back in her chair and rested a
paw over her eyes to think, there was the loud heavy beating down of
Enforcer Helikat blades as the big chopper landed. Katrina stood,
with a smile of satisfaction and a look at her watch for seeing a job
done well and quickly, and moved to greet the extremely talented, if
not noticeably eccentric Megakat Enforcer Electronic Threat Force.  

     "Boy, the Light Commander's sure got a haul here," murmured a
newer recruit. "You'd think she was going up against Felinectroid
solo with this kinda power." Katrina chuckled and  nodded to
the newbie. 
     
     "Since you're young and curious, I'll make this into a lesson."
The air rang with the sounds of loud melodramatic groaning and she
cast a side glance to the rest of the squad. "Keep it up and you're
all off-line for a week." There was utter silence. The light,
authoritative smile, became a full  grin for a moment before it
reverted back to its previous stern line for the lesson. The
lieutenant commander ticked off the points on her claws. "High levels
of power are an understandable  precaution against an opponent of 
unknown skill . . . " She motioned vaguely to the structure and
continued. " . . . but against a noted organized, and thus far
successful, resistance to investigation and entry it becomes a
necessity." She then turned sharply on her heel and took long strides
in the direction of one particular pile of equipment being 
unloaded. The deep royal purple of the flexible casing seemed to
absorb all the sunlight around it, producing the look of a mysterious
void. A void to get to the bottom of, Katrina thought.
 
     "Tyler, Marx. Suit me up. Jameson, Floyd, Harrison. Find me a
hardware communications linkup and get it ready. The rest of you.
Report to Lieutenant Briggs for assignment." The air was still
echoing with her barked commands as the MEET Force was gone. While
all Enforcers reported to the Commander, only the MEET Force jumped
like that to the words of the Lieutenant Commander.

	A few minutes later, armed with her own full armor, each plate
covering a sheet of the flexible casing that was now firmly in touch
with her own matted fur. She carefully extended her claws  a few 
times to test the glove holes before placing a paw on each side of
her wide visor and preparing to lower it over her serious amethyst
gaze. For a brief moment the usual sense of claustrophobia in her VR
helmet took its toll and she remained standing there, breathing
deeply, staring into Zachary Marx's concerned eyes. Was this how the
Commander had felt before he entered the lion's den? Then, *CLANK*,
it was all black as her visor clicked seamlessly into place over the
new risen sun. Katrina was rechecking her connections when the klaxon
rang out for the third, and hopefully, final time. 
      
     "Jameson," she called, knowing the white furred kat was standing
nearby. "I sent you through nursing, now prove it! Reading?" A long
moment later, punctuated by the clatter of keys, he answered 
hoarsely. 
     
     "We're losing oxygen on him!" Her pulse short to it's peak as
her gloved paw shot to her side and the switch there, turning her
blackened helmet into a blinding mess of visual static, "snow".

     "Do what you can! Checked clear. Monitor ready?"

     "Monitoring!" 
     
     "Diving." 
     
     "Dive on!"

     The static dissipated into a blue haze as the connection to the
city grid network was established. She called out into the deepening
blue, as if to stop the rush of electric pattern flow, in a
commanding voice touched with maybe even desperation or violence.  

     "Log on Superuser Enforcer Lieutenant Commander Katrina Sheer!
Password inputing!" She reached down to her wrist control panel and
felt for the raised letters on the keys to spell out the keyword, 
"Tomorrow". The deep blue resettled back into its light haze as the
androgynous voice of the network guardian rang loudly in her ears in
response. 

     "Audio recognition confirmed. Vocal pattern confirmed as
non-replication. Password confirmed. Superuser accepted. Persona
file?" After a moment's thought she typed in her request for the
persona file Priority 1 Entry and Control. Armed to the teeth, light
and flexible, with full access to all my requested file uploads. Not
to mention she built it off of the shots from her only glamour
photography session in full uniform and armor.
 
     "Persona loaded Lieutenant Commander. Transport ready.
Destination?"  

     "Telecommunications city sector DX30101G."

     With a whooshing of what always felt like wind, (but she better
of course) Katrina was twisted away through the light blue tunnels,
the journey occasionally punctuated by a flash of brilliant light and
heat from a passing current or information flow pattern. When the
"wind" ended she felt the static tingling of her persona digitizing
into a "solid" form.  The slightly glowing she- kat placed a paw
solidly on wall next to her and began to explore the sector,
occasionally checking with the city computer for what direction she
should be going in. Then, she was stopped cold in her tracks by the
sight before her. In the distance was an angry red glow produced by
the huge digital disk blocking the entire tunnel. She recognized it
and the shattered shards of glowing metal around it. She had found
the remains of her probe and the virtual representation of what had
destroyed it. A code block. After studying the edge of the red 
defensive energy flow with her clawtips, Katrina stood up and called
loudly again.

     "Alright kats! Upload Cracker! Materialize!" In moments a small
keyboard-like device with what looked to be a tuning fork sticking
out of the back appeared in her outstretched hands. Setting to work, 
she began sorting out various skeleton code keys, numeric and
lettered. It was only after a frustrating  series involving both
patterns that the tuning fork began to hum ever so slightly. A toothy
grin broke out on her digital face and she continued the series
rapidly, the hum growing louder and more insistent in front of her
with the now humming and vibrating block, like a swarm of angry
insects. Suddenly, the code block cracked down the middle with a snap
to shake all of Megakat City. She dropped the cracker, knowing it
would dematerialize out of her grip anyway, and dove through the
crack just before the block mended itself. 

     "Good job, Katrina. Now, let's go get the Commander out of
this," she murmured to herself, not caring that her vigilant MEET
Force was probably listening and sharing in her private success.
Setting her teeth with a determination that surprised even herself,
Lt. Katrina Sheer set to work giving Rory Tailor all the help she
could, always the klaxon ringing remembered in her ears.  

     And truthfully, her efforts did not go unrewarded or unnoticed.

                *Interlude*

        Dr. Purvis Viper hissed in the unintelligible language of
evil and dark things. His tail thrashed angrily behind his scaled
body as he leaned back against the tiled wall. As per instinct, he
kept himself in a corner of the room, so the ghost she-kat wouldn't
be able to sneak up on him again. In his weakened state, no kat logic
intruded past his instinctive survival actions and seething hate for
those that had hurt and cornered him. True to his name, when the bare
soul of the kat that remained in his shell was stripped away by pain
and/or danger all that remained was the twisting, writhing, poison of
a lowly swamp snake.

        The she-kat put me here. With her spikes and gas and demons.
But I, Dr. Viper, will not be beaten so easily. I will regenerate and
leave this house far behind me. And when Megakat City is mine, it
will be the first place to fall. She has been gone too long. Perhaps
she has other matters to deal with. But she cannot hurt me here. Only
her taunts come into these walls, and words have no effect on those
who choose not to hear them. For now, to heal, to harden, and to have
my revenge upon you, ghost of my ancient enemies.

        So twisted round and round the oily snake that was the
hate-filled thoughts of the genetic scientist, Dr. Viper. 

                *Chapter 3*

        Commander Rory Tailor moved slightly.  And regretted it.
Pain shot through various limbs to center in on his chest and his paw
flew up to a lower rib where all the points of dull aching converged.  
He grunted low in his throat to avoid outright groaning and sat up.
Then, he opened his eyes.  Still pitch dark, of course.  But by touch
he could tell he was sitting on a bare, cold floor, the remains of
the staircase that had fallen on him strangely missing.  The
middle-aged kat sat very still, partially to avoid further pain and
partially to give himself a change to figure all this nightmare out.
The surrounding blackness was like a living thing, and as his combat
training kicked back in he felt the fur on the back of his neck stand
on end at the growing sensation of eyes.  Watching eyes.  He rose up
into a kneeling position and began to crawl on his paws and knees out
of the blackness towards the light of the "foyer."  Once there, he
rose to his feet and ran a diagnostics on his armor.

        "Minor dents, but operational."  On a whim, he pounded a few
times on the ever-so-solid door with his gauntlet but received the
same response of silence touched with the echoing ring of steel on
steel.  With a light sigh, the Commander turned and entered the dark
left passageway, slowly and prepared for the walls themselves to go
crashing down on him.  As he reentered the inky black he began to
pick out the outlines of chairs, low and rounded at the top, and a
table set with dishes?  A vase of some sort of flowers?

        "Well, at least this proves I have some good old cat blooded
night vision in me, but what's with the decorations it's as if this
place is really someone's home."  At those words, there was the rush
of heavy fabric brushing fabric and huge curtains covering a set of
three bay windows opened to startle Rory out of a few more spare wits
and confirm what he had seen of the room.  The scheme of everything
was in yellows and creams, including a cream wicker patio set, the
table covered with a checkered yellow and white tablecloth and set
with lemonade for one.  But these details were all but ignored in
Rory's rush to get to the now uncovered bay windows.  He reached the
center panel and began pounding in an effort to break through, or at
least alert the patrol of six Enforcer troopers that were guarding
the wall not 10 feet from him.  But neither goal was accomplished.
The glass that appeared the width of his claw belied that image with
the feel against his fist of pressure cooked crystal sheeting.

        "This is Commander Rory Tailor, your lead officer!"  At their
lack of reaction his panic level peaked.  They could have been
staring through him.  Like a ghost.  A dead kat. 

        "You deaf doorknobs!  Look at me!  Look at me!!!!!!"  And
despite his yells and motions, the six showed no sign of even seeing
the windows.  It was as if they were still staring at the same
concrete wall they had been staring at for the past half hour.

        "Winters!  I'll have your blaster if you don't turn around
rightOW!"  He jumped back, the briefly stolen wits regained just as
quickly to silence his less than dignified yelling when he realized
the window had become hot enough to feel through his gauntlet.

        "What the?"  That was the moment the world became an inferno.
The windows before him began to glow, and the temperature shot up,
triggering the automatic rescue sensors of his blast visor.  It 
slammed into place over his eyes, too late to save him from full
vision spots, but still in time to protect his sensitive kat retinas
from permanent blindness.  Waves of heat bombarded his armored form,
forcing the Commander back to his knees and even further into a
curled ball of protection on the floor.  As the sounds of wicker
igniting and flames crackling died away he reflected strangely on
memories of home and his childhood.

        "I swear to you mother, and I know you're watching because
you always loved hearing about my Enforcer missions, I will never
again ignore the rugged process of pressure cooking a Thanksgiving 
turkey."  The thought that this comment would probably please his
mother's spirit to no end if she was indeed keeping track of "her
son, the Commander's" exploits gave Rory the ability to smile as he
waited out the extreme temperature.  And, oddly enough, whether by
his faith, or by another plan altogether, the heat slowly died away,
leaving him no worse than achy, surprised, and slightly singed. And,
thanks to his meditative reflections, much calmer.  This good mood
lasted all of two seconds as he realized that his very dark blast
shield refused to raise back into his helmet.

        "Great, blind, angry, locked in a huge death trap, and
chasing one of the most dangerous criminals in the city.  What I
wouldn't pay for a cheering section right now."  With that he crawled
forward, hoping to find now a cool wall he could trace to the door.
Before he reached it his paw struck what felt like a pitcher the same
pitcher that had been sitting on the table, by the feel of it.

        "But I heard this thing breaking "  He tested the liquid with
a corner of his gauntlet and listened as the hot plating cooled off
considerably.  Without further hesitation he dumped the pitcher over
his head.

        "That's much better.  Now, to get out of here."  Rory rose to
his feet and continued on past the ashy remains of a rocking chair,
clockwise around the curtainless window panes to finally reach a
space where his gloved paw didn't strike a wall.  Instead, it his
quite a different solid surface.  Commander Tailor squinted in the
now much dimmer light of the room through his tinted blast visor to
see before him, another door.  Another handle.  With the sick feeling
that another laser cannon was waiting for him, he gripped the handle
and prepared to dive for the floor as he turned it.  But he had
barely turned the knob when it clicked against its bolt and refused
to continue turning.

        "Locked?  What's your game?  You seemed ready enough to kill
me before, you mad house."  Truthfully, the startled kat never
expected a reply to his complaint but received one readily enough as
the door clicked, unlocked, and swung open of its own volition.  The
unsettled tone of his voice was now apparent as he muttered his
thanks and walked slowly, cautiously inside.

        The room was already lit, dimly of course, but it was the
rich decorations for this room that astounded the quickly adapting
Commander.  A billiards table was the centerpiece for the room of 
browns and reds, paintings of poker games, pool tournaments, and
hunting clubs on every wall.  It was only with the minor level of
class instilled in him by a wealthy aunt (who sadly believed that she
*could* take it with her) that he was able to recognize his
surroundings for the proper room they created. And it made him smile. 

        "A smoking room?  My, my, you're a refined thing aren't you?
A first class loonybin. So what's next?  An eight-ball cannon?  How
about "  He had gotten no further when the hissing sound began.  
He didn't wait this time, diving for the open door to his left just
before it slammed shut.  As the grayish mist poured out from under
the door he nodded and chuckled, oddly relaxed for the situation.

        "Silly me, a smoking room *requires* death by smoke or at
least lung cancer down the line."  Rory turned to examine the room
before him, a dining room about as long as an Enforcer evidence lab, 
only having the time to take a step towards the large door in the
right wall before recognizing the danger of his situation.  He heard
that same low whine again, only much higher in pitch and beginning to
build beyond his hearing range.  But with his blast visor down and
such a huge room before him, there was no way the Commander could
pinpoint the location of the offending weapon.  So he tried the next
best thing.  Running for the nearest exit.  Not a coward's move
considering he was halfway there when a tremendous force smashed
against the back of his helmet and tripped him to the ground.  He was
nailed by a second destructive laser blast of energy in the shoulder
before he slammed through the already partially open door into the
dark room.  He threw his body against the wooden door he had just
entered.  It closed with a resounding boom, leaving him in pitch
blackness.

        Great, stuck in the dark again.  And with this blast visor
locked up, I'm probably a great target.  Suddenly, and idea hit home
in his efficient, logical mind.  And it made him smile as he muttered
to himself and the entire house around him while he moved along to a
wall to his left with a searching paw.

        Build just like an old normal house.  A fancy piece of work,
but a normal 1990's architectural design.  That means that if I'm
right there should be Jackpot!  The light switch. With the flick of a 
claw, electric bulbs lit up the interior to show that yet, he was
indeed standing on a thick piled carpet, with a couch, coffee table,
several bookshelves, and a television/entertainment center before
him.  Oddly enough, the television was on.  This in itself was no
real cause for alarm, simply curious and showing the need for
investigation.  The bit that chilled Rory's blood was that the image
on the screen was of himself, walking forward to stand between the
old wood coffee table and the leather covered couch to stare at the
screen.  His head whirled to the left corner of the ceiling, where
the shot was apparently being taken from, but saw no camera.

        Nice video equipment you got there.  Sorry, I'm gonna have to
break it, but I don't like the idea of somebody watching me and
laughing at poor little Enforcer Commander Tailor in the killer
funhouse.  He leveled his blaster at the estimated area of
observation for the camera on the screen and fired.  His laser passed
straight through the corner and the kat jumped back a bit as
something, the camera probably, exploded with a shower of sparks and
a few puffs of acrid smoke coming out of a seemingly solid corner.  
After a verification that the television was receiving only snow Rory
took a step towards the illusionary ceiling section.  Sadly, a step
was all he got.

        The arm of the leather sofa swung in an arc in front of him,
slamming the Commander back into the center of the leather
monstrosity where he landed unceremoniously in a heap, stunned and
unprepared for the thing's next move.  Faster than he could react,
the black leather around him closed in to trap his arms and legs and
cover his face, clinging like a living thing.  Rory dug his claws
into the upholstered surface around him, but all his scratching and
shredding showed no change in the shell around him.  And then Rory
Tailor realized the true danger of his situation.  With his head and
body immobilized as they  were inside the airtight cloth, he was
suffocating rapidly.  Desperate, heart pounding in his ears, the 
Enforcer drew upon his last reserves of strength, to still no avail.
As the buzzing in his ears began to fade and the pain from his lungs
screamed in his mind he hoped the house had gotten Viper first.  It
was then at the end, when the couch suddenly released the near
unconscious Commander and deposited him onto the floor.  He did no
more than suck air violently through his visor vents for the few
seconds before his vision cleared and he realized that no more than
three inches from his head was a set of spiked black high heels and
legs attached to them.  Following them upwards, he was an
orange-furred, tiger-striped she-kat in excellent shape wearing a
tight royal blue sleeveless unitard, showing off that "excellent 
shape," and black clawless gloves and a belt to match her knee-high
heeled boots.  Despite the obvious attraction inherent in such an
image, Rory knew better.

        His fight instincts took over, propelling the exhausted kat
onto his feet, at his assumed attacker, and right through her.
Landing on the carpet with a startled growl he could only turn back
to stare in amazement at the figure grinning wryly before him.

        "You're a hologram!"  The she-kat laughed directly in his
face and offered him her paw, which still looked as solid and
substantial as it had a few seconds earlier, her manner that of a
primitive cat playing with its chosen prey.

        "You don't believe in ghosts?  What a shame.  Let me assure
you Commander, I am much, much more than a 'hologram.'"  Rory stared
at the paw presented dubiously, then reached with his own towards it.
He expected it to pass right through but his gauntlet met with solid
fur and skin over taut toned muscle and bone.  She hauled the bruised
Rory Tailor to his feet with a mischievous smile. She motioned to the
couch.

        "You look beat Tailor, why not take a load off?"  All the
proper emotion of his response was correctly settled in the derisive
snort he gave.  She repeated her playful laugh and placed her arms 
akimbo, paws on her hips.

        "Look, this place answers to me, and I saw it's time you
deserved a break.  And in the shape you're in, I doubt you could find
the strength to disagree with me."  Rory could do nothing but nod as
he collapsed on the couch, and true to the mystery she-kat's word,
the leather monster did not so much as shiver.  He studied her and
his expression moved from suspicion to curiosity.

        "Who are you?  What are you doing here?"  The suited figure
bowed low and motioned to the room around her, claws fully extended
in some gesture of reaching even further outward than her body 
allowed.

        "I am Fortuna and I live here.  Or, to put it more correctly,
I am here."  The gears in Rory's head were noticeably clicking as he
worked to puzzle that reply out.  Finally, he decided on the direct 
approach.

        "Pardon?"  Fortuna flopped down on the couch next to the
still slightly dazed kat and leaned against him, causing him to slide
over on the couch a bit as a pure startled reaction.

        "Open your mind a little, Rory Tailor.  What kind of
emotionless set of electronic circuits and parts would be able to
keep this household running smoothly?  I'm telling you, I am the very
walls around you, that television in front of you, and the couch you
are sitting on.  Not to mention that camera you just took out."  She
leaned back and stretched, in a manner revealing her unique fur
pattern of deep orange striping ringing the space between each
shoulder and elbow.  Rory knew the programmer must have had a
template he build Fortuna off of, or else was astounding at the
imagining and design work of every last detail to her physical
structure.  The holographic she-kat winked at him, recognizing the 
studying look, jolting Rory back to the subject at hand.

        "Why did you try and kill me?"  Her answer was quick and
matter of fact.

        "Because I am programmed to instantly engage the traps at any
sign of intruder."

        "And why are you helping me now?"  It was Fortuna's turn to
take a derisive tone to her voice, a rich sound, half between normal
speak and a growl and noticeably deeper than the range of most she-
kats.

        "Because that pile of scrap metal you Enforcers call a
central computer finally returned my description of you with the
verification that you are currently Commander of the Enforcers of
Megakat City.  By the way, you'd have better air flow if you got that
helmet off."  When Rory shook his helmet to her in response she too
replied wordlessly, raising an eyebrow in question.  With a light
sigh, wondering how such a brilliant "she-kat" could miss so much in
the level of common sense, he explained.

        "You just admitted that you had been trying to kill me, why
should I trust you now?"  She smiled again, her mouth forming an "ah"
of understanding.  Suddenly, her expression dropped to a blank mask 
and her voice became a full growl.

        "You don't really have much choice, do you?  I mean, if I
waved my hand right now, this entire couch could not only rewrap you
like a bean burrito, but it would also teleport from the parlor to
the center of the trash incinerator."  She thought on this a moment
longer before correcting herself.  "Then again, I don't even have to
wave my hand for that trick."  Seeing Rory's paled expression the 
mischievous smile returned.  "Do I really sound that threatening?"
She seemed pleased when he took no extra thinking to not in
confirmation.

        "Very.  And I'd love to oblige you, but the systems in my
helmet have not only locked my visor down, I can't retract my blast
visor either."  But curiously Fortuna simply shrugged.

        "Oh, I don't know, try it again.  For me?"  Ready to humor
her, Rory placed his paws on either side of his helmet and pulled.
And the helmet slit smoothly off, drawing both visors up into their 
compartments.  To his credit, the Commander's expression was less of
surprise and more analytically curious.

        "How did you do that?"

        "Oh that?  Your poor system was overloaded by the light show
in the sun room and locked up.  I just rerouted the signal out of its
command loop and out into my network, clearing your circuits of their 
emergency lockup.  Clear?"  She was most amused when Rory simply
shook his head as a negative response, then shook it a second time,
more violently, to clear his fur of the sweat and condensation that 
had built up inside the helmet.  And she was utterly silent as he ran
a second armor diagnostic to confirm her appraisal of the situation.
It was completely true.  Beyond that, the scanner detected a failed
video linkup soon after his entry, a painkiller injection from the
medpack while he was in the dining room, and a foreign software
invasion about a minute before when Fortuna had leaned up against
him.  It was then all the pieces finally connected in his mind.

        "You're an AI."

        "Smart kitten.  You were awake during that class.  I am an
Artificial Intelligence of the finest degree, for your information.
The only others in existence are those prototypes built by the
renowned scientist Professor Isaac Hackle previous to his death and
I'm sure you can see I am a level above and beyond even those beta
units."

        "You know a lot for a she-kat stuck in a concrete death trap
all her life."  This seemed to strike a nerve in Fortuna as she sat
up and spoke with more vehemence than ever.

        "Just because I'm in here and not out there doesn't mean I
don't hear the news, Commander.  I have access to every form of
wavelength communication created so far and can read 1500 words a
second if I find a the subject interesting.  And this place isn't so
bad.  I've kept it in incredible shape for its age. So don't talk to
me as if I was a kitten, Tailor, because I've been alive nearly 40
years, same as you, and was programmed to grow by experience and
trial and error, same as you."  She leaned back again and waited for
his answer.  By her expression, it was not what she expected.  He
should have apologized in her mind but instead the kat sat running an
armored paw through his hair and scratching a bit behind his left ear
before asking her a question.

        "Then why do you behave as if you're a teenager hotshot?"
She stood and paced a bit before  stretching her arms, paws, and
claws out again.  Her tone this time was quiet and thoughtful.

        "Wouldn't you have an ego trip if you could sense everything
in a 750 foot cube?  Every smell,  feeling, sight, sound, and even
taste in this entire house.  And with a little more effort,
everything traveling by computer, telephone, wire, radio, or
television for a hundred miles?  If you wanted the curtains blue
instead of white, would they be that way?  If you wanted the life of
the burglar who came after all the valuables you cared for in your
house, it was yours for the taking?"  She stopped at that and seemed
ready to speak again, so Rory withheld his ethics lectures.  "And
anyway, I don't know.  My creator blocked me off from his building
notes and identity before he left me alone."

        "You don't know where you came from or why?  Just that your
job was to kill anything that came here?"  Fortuna shook her head and
motioned for him to stand as she returned to stand by the couch.

        "It's more than that.  I'm supposed to grow, grow up, I
guess, through my experiences.  But I can't do that, for some reason.
It's as if every time I try and reach the next level of understanding
about myself, it's out of my reach."  Her tone changed to one of
minor insult as she crossed her arms in front of her.  "And I'm not
supposed to kill everyone, just the criminals and trespassers.
You're not dead yet,  are you?"

        "That's by my own luck entirely.  If I had been killed by
that collapsing staircase or the laser cannon you'd have been pleased
to see me go."

        "I didn't know who you were!  I only pay attention to the
text around here these days.  I listen to the TV while I work, for
Christ's sake.  It's not my fault you Enforcers keep an antique
around as your central processor!!!"  Holding up his paws in
surrender at the verbal onslaught, Rory nodded.

        "You're right.  I apologize.  I'm sorry.  Will you please
help me find and capture Dr. Viper?"  She nodded.

        "Be glad to.  It's perfect you're here, really, because that
twisted lizard-kat made it all the way up to the safe room and I can
yell at him and all sorts of psychological warfare, which he ignores,
but I can't law a paw, tentacle, or nanobot on him."  She held out
her paw for Rory to shake in agreement of their truce and alliance
but as they touched, he felt Fortuna flinch and withdraw her
attention deep inside her mind.

        "Are you alright?"  His concern was genuine, stopping her in
mid-denial and instead drawing the truth out of the flighty she-kat
AI.

        "Not really.  I just lost a code block.  Someone's invading
my system.  I know I promised to help you, but this feels wrong.
Less mechanical, more alive.  Almost like a techno-organic.  I hope
I'm not virused Anyway, I can turn off the really lethal
kill-em-before-they-know-what-hit-em traps, but I can't turn off the
pain-inducing variety, even for the good guys.  In the dining room,
all the lasers are located behind the family crests high up on the
walls and pointed to reflect off the plates.  I know there are a lot, 
but if you can hit them first, the lasers'll just go through the
table.  That's the way out of that one.  Then there's the kitchen,"
she laughed in mid-sentence, "that one's a doozy.  My hint for you is
to stay low to the ground, I meant like flat on the floor, and don't
get up 'till you reach the oven.  Then head for the door.  You'll
find the stairs going upstairs.  A good hit for this one is the fact
that you've already learned that stairs aren't safe things at all.
Now I'll meet you upstairs.  I've got a virus check to run."  Leaving 
Rory no time to react, she simply vanished, as if the stunning
she-kat was never there in the first place.

        "Yeah thanks."  He spent a moment more examining the room and
returning his helmet to its secure place upon his head before giving
the couch a good solid kick and moving for the door.  He heard 
the creak of leather behind him and fired his blaster in its general
direction behind his back without even looking.  The creaking ended
while the snow on the TV returned to its ceiling view of the parlor.

        "Nice place you got here, Fortuna."  Blaster ready, he swung
open the door to the dining room and leveled his blaster, firing at
the nearest plate as he heard the predictable whine of the lasers
powering up.  But, the Commander had forgotten one important detail
and it certainly came back to him.  The forgotten item returned to
his mind just as the blaster fire returned, reflected from the plate.
After a frightening moment of singed fur and one heck of an
adrenaline rush, this tactic was abandoned for other, more 
creative uses for an Enforcer issue blaster than were originally
outlined in the handbook.  His favorite, and most effective, turned
out to be using the barrel as the handle and the handle as a club.  A
very effective plate smasher.  And true to Fortuna's word, the lasers
sliced right through the table and were easily avoidable.

        "Well, that clue was right.  Now, let's see what's so special
about this kitchen "  Upon entering, Rory had a few seconds to
analyze the layout of the classic-looking porcelain kitchen before he
threw his armored body flat on the tile floor with a loud crash.  He
inched forward on his stomach and began to feel like Fortuna must be
laughing at him from behind another camera.  But only for a moment.
It was at the point when he was ready to stand up and face her that
the cabinets to the left and right above him swung open and blasted
fireball strength flames where Rory's head would have been, had he
been standing.  As it was, the armor took another heating as the
Commander continued this way down the kitchen's central aisle.
Remembering the instructions, the moment he reached the oven he
jumped up and over the oven's path, as it opened and threw flames
that would have charred him solid had he stayed on the floor.  The
slightly-cooked kat commander stood a second near the door, assuming
it to be safe breathing ground before he realized how deadly that
assumption could be and dove through the door out of the kitchen.

        "That's right, I'd almost forgotten there were more stairs
here."  His groan echoed evilly up the dimly lit wooden staircase.
While the top of the stairs were in sight, what lay beyond them was,
as usual, hidden behind a door.

        "Stairs aren't a safe thing."  He repeated Fortuna's warning
as he drew his blaster and fired on the first step as an experiment.
Logic told him that if he broke the first step he could always jump
it to the next step.  But something happened.  As the laser burned
through the wooden step, the wood plank sitting up at a perpendicular
angle between the destroyed step and the next one slammed down with a 
force that shook the staircase and would have permanently crippled
Rory had his foot been there instead.  But, the bonus was that while
the first step was destroyed, the plank that had fallen over it
formed an excellent replacement.  A test of his food and weight on it
also proved the new step sturdy and solid.  And so he progressed
upwards, shooting out the original stairs and climbing to the top on
the planks that fell to replace them.  The effect reminded Rory of a
series of mousetraps he once saw set up in domino fashion.  When he
finally reached the top, he saw a star on the floor and smiled.

        "It may have been years since I played a good arcade game,
but I still know when I've moved on to Level 2."

                *Interlude*

        MEET trooper Noah Jameson watched the two S.M.E.V.s under his
control with a nervousness almost palpable. His fellows made motions
to help calm him down, but nothing was really helping. After 
all, even though the Commander was green in all zones once more, his
armor temp was still jumping like a pogo stick, and he kept running
into inexplicable minor damages. That, in itself, would not have
placed Noah in that state. That additional stress was caused by the
second S.M.E.V. the white kat was monitoring . . . that one that said
that his MEET squadron commander, the Lieutenant Commander Katrina
Sheer had vanished from the sight of his cyber grid scanners. Of
course, that was his breaking point.

        His white furred paws flowed once through his regulation
length crop of thick hair before he cracked his knuckles for the nth
time and began reentering the scanner codes.

        "Come on back ma'am. Come on . . . " His voice was like that
of a worried mother calling to her kitten in the huge network of city
alleys behind her home. And, for one of the amazing rare moments in 
the life of a MEET kat, Noah wondered if life would have been better
without the computers, the cyber network, and the seemingly cold,
dark civilization of MegaKat City. His attention wandered away from 
the screen to a land where green trees stretched forever, the water
flowed clean and clear, and the electronics that created Felinectroid
and the chemicals that created Dr. Viper had never been seen on the 
face of the Earth before. Then again, if those dangers had never
existed before, people like him and the Enforcers would never be
ready for them when they came. And that means the city would have
long ago been wiped off the face of the planet. So maybe there was
some good in the forward march of time. It meant that the prey
learned to survive as well as the predators.

                *Chapter 4*

        Enforcer Lt. Commander and MEET Force Commander Katrina Sheer
was not 3 steps past the shattered blockade into the digital access
tunnel beyond before she recognized the tell-tale signs of a 
homemade network. It was as if she had moved from a subrail tunnel to
an underground cavern in the manner of walls around her.

        "I want a hand monitor with a continual feed from the
Commander's medical charts. Upload! Materialize!  I want a notepad
chat linkup with the S.M.E.V. terminal in use by Enforcer trooper
Jameson.  Upload!  Materialize!"  Once in possession of the hand held
computer she lay the charts, digitized as a 1x1 foot throw rug, on
the floor of  the tunnel for examination.  Her claws on the keys did
her speaking for her.

        [Good job, Jameson.  Breathing rate's good.  Heart rate's up
but green.  Temp's up but green.]  The reply arrived on her screen a
moment later.

        [I wish I could take the credit, ma'am, but he stabilized
before you were fully logged on.  Lt. Commander?  There's something
over on the hormone charts I think you'll want to see.  Nothing
dangerous.  Just strange.]  She nodded to herself.  Katrina worked a
bit on the rug, touching areas to bring up other categories of charts
until she found the hormone monitor.

        "What the ?"
        
        [Jameson, confirm that I'm seeing the abnormality as a spike
in testosterone?]

        [That's it Lt. Commander. I sure can't puzzle it out.]

        [If not for that armor temp rise and the currently
multiplying pinpoints, I'd say the Commander was handling himself
fine.]

        A voice rang out around the she-kat, startling her into
dropping the communicator.  This, sadly, caused it to dematerialize.

        "That's funny, so would I.  Though I truthfully wouldn't
think it any of your business how the Enforcer Commander is braving
my maze."  Floating above Katrina's head was a she-kat to stare at.
She looked as though she would stand up to a wrecking ball without
mussing her brilliantly tiger striped fur.  And that was equally in
her body as in her devil-may care attitude.  It was her words that
really caught Katrina's attention.  And made her see blood red.
        
        "Upload Paralyzation Infection!  Materialize!"  Her voice
fairly shook with rage as she prepared to catch and loose the
breakdown virus on "her maze".  But it never digitized and all she
was left with was an armed she-kat persona with an obviously sadistic
grin on her face.

        "Ah, ah, ah," she chided, waving a well manicured clawtip
back and forth.  "I wouldn't do that if I were you.  Then again, I'm
not, and I'm pretty sure you won't be too pleased to be you in a
moment either, technorg."  Waving her hand, a bulky glove-looking
device digitized, encompassing her entire wrist, very mechanical and
dangerous in its look.  Staring down the three barrels it presented,
Katrina dove for cover just in time to see a glob of semi-solid
liquid fly past her right hip and flatten onto the wall, hard as a
rock.  But not in time for the strange eight pronged projectile that
slammed into her chest, knocking her flat onto the floor and pinning
her struggling body there.  It was no surprise when the cyber 
enforcer heard the echo of footsteps and saw the looming figure of a
royal blue arm attached to a black glove, a mechanical monstrosity of
a hand held weapon recently smoking from its attack, and five 
"hooker red" polished clawtips brushing up against her whiskers.

        "Not much of a fight for a technorg, but then again, I don't
remember any virus that stood long against the ol' octopus missile.
Ready to meet that hell that evil little programs like you deserve
for being created?"  The teeth she was showing seemed even more
pointed than a normal kat should have possessed, and the bloodlust in
her eyes was incredible.  Katrina was sputtering a moment before she 
could burst out her cry.

        "Technorg!?  I'm no program!  I'm a kat digital persona!
Enjoy killing Enforcer Lieutenant Commander Katrina Sheer, because
you sure as HELL won't get rid of Commander Tailor in your 
concrete walls!"  She closed her eyes, preparing for the death blow,
but it never came.  Opening her eyes, she saw the stunned expression
on the villainous she-kat's face as she stepped back and waved a 
slightly shaking paw. At this motion, the pronged restraints around
Katrina vanished.  She muttered to herself something that sounded
like, "glovitrix dematerialize," then offered her now plain gloved
paw to Katrina in aid.  Her voice was steady and sincere in its
shock.

        "My name is Fortuna, Lt. Commander.  And I apologize."  Eyes
shifting back and forth, alert for deceit, she finally gripped the
paw and pulled herself up.  The two she-kats were utterly silent
until Fortuna cleared her throat and explained the situation.

        "Your commander came into my territory in pursuit of Purvis
Viper, whom I have trapped in the  only safe room in my 'concrete
walls'.  I am the local AI in charge of this house.  And let me
assure you, it is a house.  Your Commander is currently heading for
the stairs that will take him up to the second floor, where Viper and
the more dangerous traps lie.  But I'm trying to take care of him."
She read the question lingering in Katrina's eyes and nodded.  "He's
in one piece."  As an afterthought, she smiled thoughtfully and
commented to herself, "And not a bad piece at that."

        Katrina chuckled and shook her head, partially at the fact
that she should be irritated at that comment, but mostly in
agreement.

        "Would it be safe to guess you're the one responsible for
that testosterone spike?"  She motioned to the hormone chart at her
feet.  As Fortuna glanced over it, she blushed a bit.  To Katrina,
her mask of fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants seemed to fade a bit to
reveal a truly complimented young she-kat.  And she liked her.  But
the curiosity of a cyber Enforcer never dies so easily and just
thinking of the possibility of a locally operating AI system with
full emotion and physical capacity made her head spin.

        "How do you work?"  So many questions condensed into one
understated effort at them all.  Fortuna had every right to ignore
that question, but instead, she chose to follow her instincts and
offer what she could to this Enforcer who risked leaving her physical
body comatose to come virtually break down a code block between
herself and her superior officer.

        "You know, my creator bred into me a firm respect for
Enforcers and their lives.  I have a few files put together that
explain some of the technicals without allowing for duplication
instructions.  I can download that to your system.."  The light in
Katrina's eyes was enough thanks.  But that happy glow was rapidly
replaced by the furrowed brows of worry returning.

        "You say that you're taking care of Commander Tailor, but I
can't just sit here and fidget at my terminal.  Is there anyway,
anything, I can do to help you both out?"  Her paws wrung together,
then through her auburn hair, and then went back to their wringing
motion as Fortuna began to shake her head in a negative reply.  But
the AI laid her won paw over Katrina's knot of claws in a calming
fashion as an idea struck her.

        "Now that you mention it, there may just be someway you can
speed this up for both of us.  And save him a few more ribs.  You're
pretty good with a Cracker, aren't you?"  Katrina nodded, her own 
moment of glory in the light of this technical wizard world.  "I'm
limited by the fact that my creator placed blocks on the amount of
help I'm allowed to donate to maze travelers.  I've never had a
problem wit them before as, well," she avoided Katrina's gaze, "I've
never tried to help anyone survive before."  As the idea began to
solidify, Fortuna's speech sped up in her excitement.  "But, there
are only four major blocks and if we could just break the first one
before he starts in on the second floor, it'll really help.  I think
I'll be able to give him hints on those traps too."  Katrina nodded,
not understanding all the information Fortuna was spouting rapid
fire, but seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  Finally.

        "Wait a minute.  If you're so powerful a computer network,
why haven't you cracked these blocks before now?"

        "Well, like I said, I never really had much of a reason to
test them, but mostly because I have a direct code sequence in my
programming that forbids and keeps me from even touching those
blocks.  That's why I need help from an outside source.  Like you."
Once again, she offered her paw out to be taken.  "I need you.  Rory
needs you.  I can take you to the block right now.  Will you help me, 
Lieutenant commander Katrina Sheer?"  A light "breeze" flowed through
the tunnel around them, seeping through fur and hair alike, almost
with a shiver of anticipation.  Without a word, with only a firm nod 
and a confident smile, she tightly grasped Fortuna's hand.  The light
flowing of current swept the two she-kats up as if shifted to a full
force gale strength, the scenery a blur of blue tunnels until they
were deposited in front of a code block identical to that Katrina had
just faced.

	"Hmmm nothing special here."  Katrina's clawtips scratched the
corners of the antique barrier, testing, probing, prodding.  "It's
really old though.  Which is why it's so amazing to see it.  This 
computer blockade is older than I am and better than anything I've
ever written."  Her violet eyes turned up towards Fortuna's
questioningly, but her only reply was an orange striped shrug.

        "Remember?  I've never touched it before.  I can only assume
they were created just before I was activated.  And I was activated
before you were born."  Katrina's expression was certainly surprised
at those words from the slim twenty-something she-kat.  But she only
returned to her examination.

        "This is sealed tight.  How do you know this block has what
you think it does inside?"  Fortuna shook her head, tossing the pale
orange hair from one shoulder to the other.

        "I'd call it feminine intuition, if I was a legally
recognized she-kat.  I don't have a word for it though, except that
there is a fair chunk of memory being taken up by those three blocks
and I doubt my creator would have left me without the means to
control my own abilities would they?"  her voice was tense and even
worried in the rare moment of doubt, before she snapped two claws
together and the cracker materialized.  She handed it to Katrina and
settled herself on the floor.  "Please try."

        "You doubted I'd even try?  I've prepared all my Enforcer
career for a moment to go up against technology like you.
Felinectroid is even dimming a bit in comparison."  She typed
rapidly, her excitement apparent in her entire charged manner.  It
was as if she had drained a little of the digital environment into
herself.  Her eyebrows furrowed in annoyance as she hit her first
snag.  "Alpha-numeric isn't working Let me try numeric up to 50
spaces.."  As she muttered to herself, Fortuna smiled and responded
to the previous comment.  "Felinectroid?  And myself?  I am flattered
dear Lieutenant Commander, but Curtis Wyre was, is, probably the most
brilliant computer programmer alive.  I just barely kept him from
snooping into my network drain.  I was startled enough that he even 
detected my presence under all that cloaking "  She was cut off as
Katrina flopped back on her heels and sighed.

        "I doubt it'd be something so generic as a pure alpha code
but, here goes."  It was less than a second later when the cracker
began vibrating, the code block answered the frequency and vanished.  
Fortuna was on her feet in a second.

        "You didn't crack that!  You found the code!"

        "Fortuna, have you never tried a dictionary scanner on no, I
forgot, you can't mess with this.  Fortuna, the code is in standard
English.  Access it with the word 'luck'."  Fortuna closed her eyes
and engaged the command and was swept away mentally.  Behind the
block was the program alteration allowing her the ability to warn
Rory about the 2nd level traps and disengage the instant death
obstacles.  But there was something else.  A Virtual Reality file.
She opened it and found the wind racing around her at a mach level.
Eyes wide, she looked around to find herself in the cockpit of a
*gorgeous* jet, paws on the controls, diving, climbing, racing.  The
scenery of the city flashing into site and vanishing again at a
rapid-fire pace as the hands, moving constantly without her control,
spun the aircraft into a tight barrel roll.  And somewhere, deep in
her soul, if the programmed she-kat could ever admit to having a
soul, she thrilled at it.

        "Hey, are you alright, Fortuna?  I know interfacing with the
older software should be hard but you said we had to hurry for Rory."
Katrina spoke up as she noticed a shudder ripple Fortuna's fur and 
bodysuit.  The hologram shook her head in confusion, coming out of
her daze, and nodded. 

        "You're right.  The block had exactly what I've been looking
for."  There was an odd tone to her words, as if they held some kind
of double meaning.  "The next block is a good distance from here, but
I need to get to him.  Think you'll be alright?"  At the Enforcer's
nod of affirmation, she was suddenly left alone to her thoughts, with
only the crackling energy wisp remaining of the object of her
curiosity, and what seemed to be miles of blue tunnel before her.

                *Interlude*
        
        The figure coughed.  It had been too long since it had found
cause to think.

        "What is the year now?  Ah, 2040.  I'm impressed with you
Fortuna.  You are evolving faster than I ever dreamed, little kitten.
It was the breaking of that first code block that awakened me.  It is
time for you to mature.  Will it be for good or evil?  But, to
business nice network setup.  You seem to have extended all the way
through the city electric utilities and outwards to the Enforcer main
computer?  I'm impressed.  Now, who broke that block for you?  A
she-kat an Enforcer she-kat let's access that little network of yours
to the Enforcer CPU and that is one slow piece of junk.  I won't wait
for that.  Maybe it's tucked away in your RAM system.  Ah yes, there
she is.  The Enforcer Lieutenant Commander Katrina Sheer, head of the
cybernetics forces?  I didn't realize they had a cybernetics attack 
force what's this?  Initially founded to combat the appearance of the
cyber villain Felinectroid.  I must be really behind on the times
here."

        "What's this?  Two live entities?  Let me see.  I don't
recognize the one at the top of the stairs and the RAM says?  The
commander of the Enforcers?  One Rory Tailor?  This is just too rich.
The figures who actually reach Fortuna in the end are those who began
the cycle that created her.  The irony would drip from my tongue.  If
I still had one, that is.  I don't think I'll ever get used to that.
And who is the other VIPER?!  That explains the Enforcer presence.
Alright, I'm still on the sidelines here, and know you can't access
this program, Fortuna, but go get that scaly piece of garbage.  For
me."

                *Chapter 5*

        Rory was ready when Fortuna reappeared at the top of the
stairs. He didn't jump, or shudder, or wince. In fact, he even smiled
as she examined him carefully from head to feet. 

        "No missing limbs yet. Good." She quirked a half-smile at him
and turn to open the door in front of them.

        "That door's locked, you can't open…" The knob turned
silently and the thick door swung open. ". . . it." She chuckled, and
he knew better than to speak. So instead he looked at the new area
before him. It was a plain, ordinary hallway, with seven or eight
doors on it, overhead lighting coming from lamp alcoves near the
ceiling. "At least this room is well lit. Don't tell me, the lights
explode?" 

        "Nope." She said cheerfully. "The doorknobs."

        "Oh yeah, that was next on my list. So, how do we get into
the rooms?" He asked, puzzled. His reply came fast enough.

        "Through the doors, how else?" There was this infuriating
quality to her answers, as if they were the only answers decreed by
the gods and she couldn't understand how anyone else wouldn't know
them.

        "But you just said..." Rory's gauntlet twitched at the
thought of gripping a doorknob, to have it react like a spitting hand
grenade seconds later. She turned back to him and recognition seemed
to finally dawn as she laughed lightly.

        "Oh, I'm sorry, you thought I meant that the doorknobs would
still be active when you went inside. No, no, I've turned off the
traps set to destroy you on contact." Her absolute calm set his
nerves on edge strangely. He swallowed back the bitter remark he had
instinctively felt appropriate to this situation and instead allowed
his brain to find a more diplomatic suggestion.

        "Well that's nice of you. Be sure to tell me these things. By
the way, how was the virus hunting?" While it was a seemingly
harmless line, he noticed it sobered Fortuna instantly. The Commander
listened carefully for what must be the next trial in his search for
Viper.

        "It wasn't a virus, Tailor. It was your Lieutenant
Commander." He thought she sounded almost guilty before the full
import of her words struck him. She had destroyed Katrina! He wanted
to lunge again, but knew he would end up on the carpeted floor so he
simply shook. Violently. His gauntlets quivered and his words came
quick and short with shaky breath.

        "What did you do to her?"

        "Me? I didn't do anything to her. She helped me find the code
block that allowed the transfer of previously withheld data and . .
." Fortuna continued on, unaware she had lost the attention of her
sole audience member. He had jumped to the conclusion that she would
be as deadly as the rest of this madhouse. How good it was to be
wrong for once. But if Katrina was inside, who was monitoring his 
signals and that rookie Briggs? In the typical fashion of a man
reminded of greater duties than his own fur, Rory was about to wander
off in thought again.  However, a few choice words from Fortuna held
his wavering attention. ". . . and so the instant death traps have
been shut off and I can even give you a few more tips on how to avoid
the traps on this floor once Lieutenant Commander Sheer gets that
second code block open." Her good spirit was growing infectious.
After all, if she, the controller of this entire house, was friendly
to him, what was there to fear?

        "Then let's get started." He reached for the first door,
hovering over the knob for ten seconds before he overcame his fear
and grasped it. As promised, nothing happened and he turned the knob 
stepping into the first room.
        
        It was a bedroom, warm and clean in appearance, and huge. It
was obvious that most of this floor had been taken up by this room.
Somewhere in Rory's mind, it even struck him that all the rest of the 
doors out in the hallway should have led into this room, but didn't.
More holograms. He took a few steps forward in the rich burgundy
carpet and heard the door slam shut behind him. As usual. The good 
mood he had felt moments earlier was draining out of him like water
through a sieve. And a paranoia was returning to take its place. He
stopped and gave the room his total analytical attention. Two solid
wood dressers, a large water bed, several potted plants, a
complicated stereo system, what looked like a large walk-in closet,
and a closed door to his left. He stepped to the left towards the
door when it dawned on him that Fortuna was missing.

        "Fortuna? Are you here?" There was a small sound, like the
brush of a tiny breeze and he caught a flash of blue out of
peripheral. Turning to face her, she nodded. "Are you alright?" Again
she nodded, and he noticed, that when she reached to rest a paw on
his shoulder, it simply passed through. That's right, he remembered,
she can't help me now. Obviously no hints yet, or she would have
given me one. 

        "Nice room you have here." He expected to get a smile for his
troubles, but instead only a strange sad, lost look passed over her
features. 

        "Thank you. But it's not mine." Her eyes rested over her
shoulder she shifted nervously. Rory noticed, but couldn't attribute
it to anything specific.

        "But I thought everything in this house was yours. Was you."
She swallowed hard and her fidgeting became more pronounced.

        "It is. But this room isn't mine." This made no sense to the
Commander and he shook his head, growing annoyed at her riddles. He
turned back to the door and gripped the handle only to find it
locked. No surprise there. He tested the strength of it, throwing his
armored body up against it a few time before turning back to Fortuna
and opening his mouth to speak, only to find her peering over her
shoulder at the closet. The Commander of the Enforcers was never
horribly interested in mysteries and decided to end this one as soon
as possible.

        "Ah, so that's where the surprise in this one is? Well,
shielding's up, you've become redundant with fire and lasers. I
wonder what this one will be." His bravado was still hanging in the
room as he crossed the room in several large strides. His paw slid
into the handle slot pulled on the sliding wooden door, keeping his
back to Fortuna. She stood still in her previous position, her face
contorted in a scream of warning, her hand motions frantic, reaching
towards Rory. The mistress of the house was no longer in control of
her own functions. Her own will told her to stop him, her own voice
pleaded with him to leave the closet alone. But that was against the
rules, so she remained silent and distanced against her own will. 
At the sound of the door scraping open on its rails, she huddled into
a miserable ball on the floor and closed her eyes, before vanishing. 

        Rory turned around to face the room, forcing a chuckle back
down his throat.

        "Fortuna, there's nothing here, only a closet of
old-fashioned clothes Fortuna, where are you?" The question was not
answered before the creaking registered in his mind. It was the kind
of *creak*  *creak* sound effect used when a kat was hung in the old
western vid-films and the body was left swinging on the rope with a
creaking gallows beam. It came from the closet and the Commander
noticed the coat hangers were swinging slightly to the sound, as if a
breeze in the room set them to moving. The whole image unnerved him.
The nervous kat felt the fur rise all along his back under his armor
and drew his blaster, stepping backwards from the closet. 

        "Fortuna? Fortuna, what is this? Answer me!" His voice didn't
echo this time, in fact, he barely heard it at all as the creaking
had increased to the volume where kats begin banging on walls and
telling you what time it is. It seemed to be more in his head than
around him and as the swinging on the clothing increased, a feeling
of panic made his claws from his gauntlet and his muscles twitch in
protest to his  unwillingness to flee. Fighting for control he went
back to the door and tried to break it down again. The results were
the same. The laser had no effect on it, nor did the desperate claw
slash even mar its wood surface. The tiny voice in his head
encouraging calm and peaceful feeling was drowned by the deathly 
creaking. And like Fortuna before him, Rory Tailor found himself
huddled on the rich burgundy carpet, gripping clumps of it in his
claws, fighting to keep a hold on his sanity.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------
             
        "LIEUTENANT SHEER!" 
        
        Katrina jerked her head up violently from her cracker at the
scream. Fortuna was running towards her quickly, her facial
expression foretelling disaster the Commander!

        "What's wrong? Tell me. Tell me he's not dead!" Her own voice
rose a bit in force but calmed quickly, knowing she was a better
officer than to panic under stress.

        "No no not yet he's not. But he might be if you don't hurry.
I can't tell him where the door latch is and this room is one of the
worst." She paced the tunnel next to Katrina her paws gripping into 
fists in anger at her own helplessness, a gesture very fitting to the
she-kat. It was almost as if she were molded to have all the proper
gestures and persona of a real kat instead of a personality file.

        "I'm on it. Sending dictionary scanner codeword is fate. Good
luck." As soon as the barrier vanished, Katrina was on her feet and
running for the final codeblock. Fortuna watched her for a moment 
before accessing this next file, the program for second floor hints
was downloaded as well as another video file. She felt a strong
longing to open it now, but knew it would distract her from helping
Rory.

        "Don't worry hero, the digital damsel in distress is on her
way." 

---------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------
                      
        He hadn't noticed the bodies until they began walking towards
him. They had been in the swinging clothing so far as he could
reason, which wasn't very far. Even through the mental fog violently
rejecting the sound invading his mind he recognized faces. Almost.
One of the figures lumbering across the carpet towards him was Hard
Drive, but not the Hard Drive currently finishing up his life
sentence in Al-kat-traz, this one was younger looking, as if more
vitality had been found in his death. And his death had been 
horrible from the looks of it, the millions of wires of his primitive
electronics coat growing into his flesh, burned from the electricity
and conduction. A figure in the dress of the older pilots looked
almost normal until Rory discovered that it seemed his neck had been
snapped and his head turned 180 degrees. But two eyes still stared
blind and dead at him from over his trimmed neck hair! How was this
possible? He tried to meld with the door as the most gruesome figure
of all stepped from the depths of the closet. The villain known in
Enforcer computer records as Dark Kat came forward to demonstrate his
cadaver, robes soaked through, purple face bloated and sagged from an
obviously extended drowning. The mind of a normal kat was never meant
for such images and for all his vaulted authority and power, Rory was 
fairly normal. Thus, his mind froze at the dozens of criminal zombies
moving for him, locking the muscles of his body with it. 

        "Commander Tailor, pay attention. The door switch is in the
top drawer of the bureau to your left. Pull it to stop the monsters.
The dead creatures are not real. Commander Tailor, pay attention. The
door switch is in the top drawer of the bureau to your left. Pull it
to stop the monsters. The dead creatures are not real. Commander
Tailor, pay attention. The door switch is in the top drawer of the
bureau to your left. Pull it to stop the monsters. The dead creatures
are not real ." He shook his head as the gentle  voice final
penetrated. At first he couldn't recognize it and didn't understand
most of the words, feeling confused and helpless. But three were
clear. To Stop Monsters. Pull It. Pull what? The door switch. 
Where is the door switch? In the top drawer to your left. Still not
having the courage to open his eyes, his left paw flew blindly up the
wood bureau, gouging splinters out of it until it found a drawer. It
was ripped open and he felt a small object like a lever. Rory
thrashed his paw at it again and again until he felt too weak to
continue trying. The creaking had stopped but Rory understood not to
move. It was some amount of time before he opened his eyes slowly.
There was a she-kat in from of him. She smiled and held out her hand
but he kept away from it in suspicion. 

        "It's me Commander. Are you all right?" The word Commander
felt important to him and slowly his mind woke up from its nightmare
and stretched out. When he felt he could use his paws and feet 
again he stood shakily and looked at the she-kat again. What was her
name again? Katrina? No, that was someone else.

        "Fortuna?" She smiled. 

        "Good. I was afraid we'd lost you, buddy. I've never had a
healthy respect for Enforcers, but I would have been terribly sorry
to see you go. " In spite of her attempt at wit, Rory could only nod.
It was a bit too early for a humor. 

        About ten minutes later was a perfect time for humor. Or at
least conversation.

        "What is this room anyway?" Rory eyed the open, empty closet
with a new respect now.

        "The second floor only has three rooms but two of them will
blow you away. Literally. And even if you were, say impervious to
extreme physical harm like our friend Viper you would still have to
deal with the holographic gore and death to get through. And for
anyone still sane, Viper not included in that category, that's a hard
thing to do. He was startled, yes, but I think that was more for
having known some of those criminals than for any fear or disgust."
Rory sat with his helmet off on the water bed rubbing his temples and
resting from his brief meeting with Dementia. He had just convinced
his armored, bruised, tired body that it really did want to go into
the next room when he became curious again. A good sign. 

        "Why criminals? Why was this room built to display your
criminal slaughters?" Her reaction was partially laughter and
partially a thoughtful response. 

        "Those aren't my kills. I never killed anybody that special.
Okay, so I once crippled Hard Drive with an energy overload, but he
never set foot in this house. I always wondered that about my
creator. At sometimes he seems very kind and generous, while others,
like this room, make him appear as vindictive  and horrible. I'm not
sure about him at all. I can only know that he was sad. Very sad."
Her face lit up as a memory set aside returned. "Speaking of the
creator, I have a file I need to look at." She turned to the Enforcer
in her home. "Commander, please go on to the next room. The door is
now unlocked. Do not go beyond the carpet until I get there. If I am
right, this will all be over with soon." When he nodded his
acceptance to her, she vanished again.

        Rory stood and moved away from the bed, replacing his helmet
before opening the door.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------
              
        Fortuna was not surprised when she saw she was now in a
warehouse. Dark and full of brown boxes labeled Pumadyne, she
understood that this must be what it was like when Rory Tailor and
Katrina Sheer dreamed. She was not even surprised when the robed
purple figure, unlike the one she knew by her programming (this one
was alive and undrowned), stepped out in front of her. What surprised
her was her own voice ringing out in proud defiance as her arm raised
and aimed the glovitrix at him. I thought when one dreamed they had
an element of control. Silly computer, you're not dreaming. You're
watching a video file. Nothing more. 

        "That's as far as this goes Dark Kat. Megakat City will never
be yours." The figure before her laughed an evil booming laugh and
the she-kat felt the emotion of righteous indignation at this insult. 
Without another word, she fired two rounds of the cement gun at him.
The moment the laughing face vanished, so did the warehouse. Strange,
she thought, the first made me happy, the next made me angry. 
What are these files? I wonder what the final one will be.

        She stepped next to Katrina as she reached the final
codeblock. Lieutenant Sheer, for her part, did not seem surprised to
see her and called for her cracker again. First a chat hand console
appeared and the Enforcer actually laughed upon viewing it. Fortuna
leaned over to see the message [His brainwaves were out the window
for a minute along with his heartrate, but he's fine again. How did
you manage to copy your self and send one in to take care of him?]
When she was sure Fortuna had finished reading, she typed the reply,
[I'll tell you about it sometime. Now send me my Cracker, Jameson.]
The console dematerialized and the cracker arrived.  

        Katrina prepared to send the last dictionary scanner when
Fortuna rested a paw on her shoulder. She looked up curiously, and
the gaze that met her was solid, and serious. Different from the
free-spirited she-kat of previous encounter, and yet somehow, the kat
she was always meant to be.

	"Allow me? Computer, access blockage in area #72961 with code key
'random'." The code block in front of her opened slowly, almost in
protest and Katrina was surprised to see Fortuna's hopeful smile drop
almost instantly upon investigation.

	"Is everything alright? The file to help Rory is in there right?"
The AI shook her head, not in response, but to clear whatever cobwebs
form quickly in the minds of programs and the smile almost returned.

	"Yes, it's there. I better be getting back to him." She began to
fade away and would have made a clean escape if Katrina had been a
she-kat of less electronic empathy. The Lieutenant Commander had 
grabbed her by the tail, causing a jolt in her teleport. Fortuna
turned to Katrina with an eyebrow raised in question and forced an
odd sound out of her throat for effect. But the Enforcer was not
fazed.

	"Fortuna? What was it you were looking for?" Their gazes met, and
for a brief second there was only a thin layer of looking glass
between them, one face mirroring another soul. Officer reflected as
automation, mechanization represented in the form of magistrate. With
the quiet sound of glass falling apart there was a blink, a twitch
and it was over. Fortuna sighed.

	"I don't know. But it wasn't there."  With a swift flick of her
tail, she dislodged it from Katrina's grasp and vanished. Lieutenant
Commander Sheer settled against the wall and prepared to log-off when
the tunnels around her blasted out Fortuna's words.

	"STAY IN THE NETWORK. YOUR COMMANDER WILL NEED YOUR HELP
CAPTURING VIPER." 

---------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------

	The room was nothing spectacular. Not by the standards of the
rest of the building, that is. But judged on its own, it was at least
impressive. Royal blue tiling stretched the length of the dining
room, which it resembled in shape, except that this time elegance had
been traded for practicality. Mirrors lined all four walls,
interrupted only by the wooden door behind Rory. Various pieces of
exercise equipment were scattered throughout the room, with the
central figure being the large weight-lifting set of steel and iron.
He had been unable to find another door yet, but was also trapped on
a small square of burgundy carpeting so he was sure his chances would
improve upon Fortuna's return. Which wasn't much longer.

	"Miss me? Time to finish this." Despite her cheerfulness, Rory
understood that something was wrong. He had not been in the house as
long as his aching body claimed he had, but Fortuna was so real to
him, so individual, that she did not behave like any AI he had ever
met. Thus, even when upset, she could not hide her pain behind a
program cover. She could only create bravado, the same as any she-kat
. . . like Katrina. Despite her smile, there was a quiver to both
voice and whiskers that Rory could not ignore. 

	"Of course I did. What do you mean? And why are you so nervous?
Please tell me Fortuna. I want to help you as you've helped me." His
paw was gripped tightly around her arm and he had even lifted his
visor, so as to see her eye to eye. But she only shook her head, that
same plastic smile glued on.

	"There's nothing you can do Commander. You were right. Plain and
simple. I was built for no better reason than because MegaKat City's
prisons were too full 40 years ago. The reason I am emotionally
trapped where I am is because there is nowhere farther for me to go.
I could give up, and kill you and let Viper starve to death and that
would be the end of it. But I won't. I'll at least prove better than
that." Rory tried to speak but she rushed on past him, words becoming
a jumble, and the grating edge of her voice growing harsh with
restrained violence. "Shut up. Put your visor down. You'll need it. I
don't need you or anyone else. I've been alone this long and I can
handle myself and *my* house just fine thank you. You'll be the one
needing the help. After all. I'm the best of my kind. And the worst."
Tail thrashing an angry tempo behind her, she stepped away from Rory
and lifted her hands up high in the air, as if to call a tempest down
upon them both. The kat half-expected a violent wind to spring up
from nowhere, far worse had happened without warning, but there was
nothing. Only silence.

	And then that silence was shattered, literally by the breaking of
mirror after mirror after mirror, one by one, glass spraying
violently outwards from 10 different locations, all at him. Somehow,
the armor took the battering. But as nothing was ever that easy or
simple anymore, he stood ready. Out of the storm's calm came
Fortuna's voice again.

		"The final room is this training room. You've already fought
fire, and lazers, and monsters, and enemies. But are you ready, high
and mighty Commander of the Enforcers...to fight yourself?" He didn't
even turn to look at her. He already knew the she-kat was gone. And
in the order they had broken the pieces of each mirror shifted and
skittered across the tiles until they lay in nice neat piles before
each scarred frame. Then, a foot formed out of the mass, and another.
Two legs, covered in armored guards were distinctly the next shapes
molded. So each pile continued upwards until they reached the correct
height of six feet, helmet included, and ten mirror images of the
Enforcer Commander Rory Tailor stepped forward to due battle. The
eleventh and original did not falter as he charged the nearest golem,
smashing it with his armored body. 

	Each of his copies drew their blasters and went through the
motions of firing, but nothing emerged. She really is trying to kill
me, Rory thought sadly. "There is no failure, except in no longer
trying." Who said that, he wondered? And then the moment of peace and
thought was gone and another image of himself was attacking. A
strange time to think of quotes, he supposed, but they kept coming
anyway. "If at first you do succeed - try to hide your astonishment."
He chuckled weakly at that one as the third glass figure crunched
under his foot. "Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so
much." Sorry, Rory told himself, as he worked to punch the fourth
figure's helmeted face inward, I doubt you were thinking of this
situation anyway . . . whoever you are. "Bravery is the capacity to
perform properly even when scared half to death." Yeah, whoever said
that had it right on the whisker. The fifth returned to a pile of
broken glass.

	"It is said that one machine can do the work of fifty ordinary
men. No machine, however, can do the work of one extraordinary man."
It was only after the words had passed through his lips that Rory
realized that he was saying the quotes now, using them almost like a
driving force as his armor was slashed under the razor-sharp assaults
of his silent opponents. None moved towards him until his predecessor
had already been trampled, giving him only a second's rest and no
time to breath, or think, or recover. The words reminded him that he
couldn't give in to the need to fight mindlessly. And so he kept
saying them as he smashed, and crushed, and cried out, and bled.

	"It matter not how strait the gate, how charged with punishment
the scroll. I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul."
He was slowing down now, the damage taking its toll. An inch off of
the end of his tail was missing and his armor had finally given way
in the well-beaten areas to flesh and fur. He struggled briefly to
find the words, but they did not leave him for long.

	"Who we are we choose to be; nobody chooses for us!" That was a
jab at Fortuna for her final 
choice on his fate. He had no illusions now about his end. There were
only three left, but three was still too many. When he spoke now, his
voice was cracked and sore from his rapid breathing and broken ribs.
But, though it came out in pieces, the quote still forced its way
out.

	"We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering with our
capacity to endure suffering. Do to us what you will and we shall
continue to love you." The shiny surface of the creature before him,
the thing that looked like him, left Rory confused. This battle took
minutes, not seconds, and time was currently his greatest enemy. And
when the ninth pile of reflection was strewn across the blue tiles,
the Commander knew he was done. It didn't matter that there was one
left. His body had taken all the abuse it could. His battery belt was
not only drained of all energy, but it had been shredded off of him
much earlier. His blaster had cracked while he had disemboweled one
of the mirror-forms. He did not hear himself speak, "No one can harm
you except yourself." Rory Tailor knelt down, head bowed, and
prepared to rest. The golem moved slowly forward, no intelligence in
its cold frame making it hesitate over a fallen opponent. It halted a
few inches away from him and raised one paw high to crush his
battered helmet and skull.

	There was no yelling. There was no cry of "NO!" or even any witty
patter about salvation. Truly heroic deeds occur unannounced. Rory
did not even notice until a splinter of glass hit him that he wasn't
dead. He opened his eyes, and lifted his head to find Fortuna taking
the brunt of the injury meant for him. Without armor, even his
pathetically thrashed variety, she was being tossed back and forth
like a rag doll. He understood by the cracking sounds that many of
her bones were no longer in one piece, and she was about to meet the
same end he was. Never mind she wasn't alive. Never mind she was a
computer program. Rory pulled off his helmet and managed to heave it
full force at the mirror creature of himself a foot away. It impacted
with the kneecap and cracked it. When the creature moved again, the
leg snapped at the knee, toppling it forward, to the tiles where it
smashed itself into hundreds of pieces. On top of Fortuna. She had
not dematerialized, or vanished. She lay on the tiles, almost
blending into them with the blue color of her suit, and did not move.
Rory decided he would do the same. Of course, he really hadn't
expected Katrina to arrive. 
	
	Than again, Katrina hadn't expected Katrina to arrive either. But
that didn't stop it from happening. One minute she was standing
confused in the tunnel and the next she was standing in a room full
of broken glass with blue tiles and Rory and Fortuna were dead on the
floor. She didn't scream. She was too surprised. She did trip on the
way over to Rory and didn't even notice that nothing happened when
she landed on a pile of broken glass. She only knew that she needed
to prove to herself that he was dead. A moment later she knew that
she had to help him. One moment more than that and she knew there was
no helping him with his own equipment. Not that a problem with
equipment ever stopped anyone really determined before. Especially
not the leader of the MEET Force. Katrina grabbed her own medpack and
hauled it out from underneath her two layers of armor plating,
careful not to damage the wiring leading from it to her suit
controls. Judging where the fur and skin was swollen, she placed the
unit needle down and injected as much painkiller as her safety
controls would allow. As she gave him the final dose the she-kat felt
a shudder through him up the medpack. 

	"Commander? Rory?" He tried to raise his head but only ended up
groaning loudly before closing his eyes again. "I don't know if you
can hear me, but don't move. You're hurt very badly. Just stay where
you are, I'm going to go check on Fortuna." She stood and picked her
way across the glass field to the she-kat's body. Strange, but she
remembered there being broken shards of mirror all over here. The
gashes were all still there but the glass was gone . . . She decided
not to think of it, but instead followed the same procedure of
deducing injury. So sad. While the cuts and blood were more from the
glass on the floor, she seemed to have taken a lot of physical
internal damage. Finding an area to start with, the smashed pelvis
bones, Katrina placed her medpack unit over it and injected the
painkiller. As the needle punched into her skin, Fortuna's eyes flew
wide open in alarm. Her voice cracked like a whip through the room.

	"STOP! I'm fine! I'm fine! Don't poke me, prod me, or do
anything!" Katrina fell backwards in shock as Fortuna, with her
vaguely deformed skull stared at the ceiling and took on a look of
intense concentration. It was as if she was studying a grain of sand
trapped in a dust particle lodged in a crack in one of the tiles
above her. Katrina worked so hard at trying to puzzle out that look,
that expression, that she eventually gave up and closed her eyes to
rest them. Feeling better, she opened them again, only to find
Fortuna in the process of standing up.

	"What the? How did you? Wha . . . ?" That familiar cocky grin
quirked into being at the corner of the AI's full lips. 

	"Surprised?" She brushed the various bits of glass off of her
jumpsuit as Katrina worked for find the word for yes. "Oh don't look
at me like that. If I'm powerful enough to control this whole house,
you can expect me to be able to reattach a few broken bones. Not that
it didn't hurt. It hurt a lot. A whole lot." With another
concentrated look she scanned the room around her and Katrina had to
stifle another surprised gasp as the glass flowed across the tiles to
reform into wall mirrors. Fortuna noticed her expression and laughed
out loud.

	"Oh, that's right. You've never been on the inside before. A lot
prettier than the network, eh?" Before Katrina could answer,
Fortuna's expression shot from peak of performance to somewhere
around I blew it. She rushed over to where Rory was laying on the
floor and knelt down by his side. While Katrina didn't understand it,
she was positive that there was a tender aspect to her whole manner
as she checked for a pulse and found one. Placing a paw lightly on
his chest she obviously spoke only to him.

	"For those who have fought for it, life has a flavor that the
protected will never know." She noticed Katrina's questioning look
and let out a small puff of breath through her nostrils in that huff
way. "He said some things that made a difference." The tenderness
collapsed under the new emotion, a brisk surgical manner that made
Katrina at once both nervous and hopeful. "Give me your medical
injection unit. Disconnect it from your suit. Don't worry, I won't
hurt it." The bewildered Enforcer handed the requested item over, her
doubt and confusion clear, but waited patiently. She saw Fortuna
place the bundle of loose wires in her hand, and then suddenly the
wires were attached *into* her hand. After considering the
commander's condition for a second, she placed the injector on the
underside of his left biceps and released . . . something into his
body. Looking pleased, she handed the unit back to Katrina who could
no longer keep silent.

	"What are you doing to him?" 

	"I'm saving his life. My nanotech units can heal him the same as
they did me. Like they did you."

	"Me?"

	"Yes, all the little cuts you would have had from the loose glass
shards. The nanotech bots fixed 
them first." Katrina removed her gauntlet and looked down at her fur,
flexing her paw a few times. She even tested popping her claws in and
out a few times before looking back at Fortuna. 

	"How am I here, in this house? With you and the Commander?"
Fortuna smiled with a look of 
understanding. 

	"I formed a body for you, just like mine when I want to become
solid, and projected your digital form into it, giving full
structural access. This is how I feel all the time, Lieutenant
Commander Sheer. Just the same as you and the Commander, and every
other kat out there feels. I have flesh too. And a soul." 

	"Yes. You certainly do." Rory groaned again and Katrina looked
down to see he looked much better. She was about to speak to him when
she felt Fortuna's paw on her shoulder silencing her. She leaned over
to whisper in her ear while offering a paw and helping her stand.

	"I don't think now would be a good time. Let him rest. Besides,
you have a snake to catch."

	"Ohmagosh, I'd forgotten all about Viper. Is he still trapped?"

	"Of course he is. I wouldn't let him out of the saferoom." She
motioned and a small hand weapon appeared that Katrina finally
recognized as an older issue Enforcer tranquilizer. 

	"A bit old fashioned, aren't you?" Fortuna blushed all the way
down to her orange stripes and shrugged.

	"It'll work! Go on! The bathroom's over there." She motioned to a
handle in one of the mirrors. "I'll wake up Commander Tailor and be
right behind you."

	"Alright." She stopped for a minute before laughing. "Your
saferoom is the bathroom?" Fortuna shrugged helplessly, clearly
saying what's-a-she-kat-to-do?

	"The creator had a sick sense of humor, I guess. And Sheer? Good
luck." Katrina smiled warmly and gripped the weapon, on a strange
high from being able to digitally battle Viper with a real body and
weapon. She stepped over to the mirror and slid it sideways,
revealing a wooden door when a brass door knob. Gripping it firmly,
she turned the knob and swung the door swiftly inwards. 

	The bathroom was average sized and simple. One tub, one shower
curtain, one sink, one mirror, and one toilet all done in the scheme
of light gold. There was a violent hissing from the space between the
toilet and the bathroom wall, a pair of animal yellow eyes focused on
her. Katrina Sheer pulled the trigger. Dr. Viper gave a howl of pain
as the dart struck home in the upper leg, and then it was over. She
stared at the collapsed reptilian body for the longest time . . .
until Rory placed a paw on her arm and slowly lowered the gun, so as
not to startle her. She exhaled slowly and dropped the weapon to the
floor.

	"Fortuna, I think I'm ready to leave now." Her voice was a bit
shaky but only with fatigue and worry. Emotions which Fortuna
completely understood, even if she was not quite in control of the
situation now.

	"I'll see what I can do. I thought we could just leave the way
you came, but the door seems to have jammed. I'll go check it out. Be
right back." She sat on the floor and stared at the door in
concentration. Unsure of what else to do, Rory wrapped Katrina in a
hug he felt from somewhere within his broken armor. She returned it
warmly.

	"I swear Rory Tailor, Commander of the Enforcers or not, you will
not do this to me again. Do you realize what a mess a MEET she-kat
like me would cause to that cranky old Enforcer system if I was 
Commander?" His face twisted up at the very thought of it, and he
sneezed as his whiskers brushed some fur near his nostrils. This, of
course, set off new bouts of healing laughter entirely . . . .

		*Interlude*

	Fortuna stepped to the door in her mind's eye and was just about
to turn the knob when the door opened by itself. She was about to
attack when she instead froze at the sight of a figure in the
doorway. It was a kat, a tom slightly smaller and not much older than
herself with a sort of caramel colored fur pattern wearing the same
blue jumpsuit she was personally so fond of. Something in him struck
her as familiar. Not just familiar as in seen before, but familiar as
in a sense of home. She had never felt it with such power before. The
kat stepped forward and his brown eyes studied her carefully, his
smile growing warmer every second.

	"My, my, Fortuna, you have really come along in your years. And
your looks are amazingly clear. You fulfilled your programming beyond
my wildest hopes. " The dazed she-kat finally found her voice
somewhere back in the smoking room. 

	"Excuse me? Are you, the Creator?" The slight kat nodded and ran
a hand through his thick side whiskers in pride.

	"You could say that. I know that you're thinking that I shouldn't
be here. I should be gone or dead. In fact, now that I think about
it, I am dead. But you're not. You're alive, and vibrant, and
everything you were always meant to be. Everything he was always
meant to be." The older kat's eyes misted over at some ancient sad
memory and he held out a hand to Fortuna. "Come inside now. There is
so much you need to know, that I need to tell you about yourself.
Don't be afraid. There's only one file missing. It's right here." He
held out a small box to her in both hands and she accepted it in
silent wonder and almost reverence. "That's it. You can access it
with the code word 'chance.'"  With that, he stepped back into the
doorway and waited. Frightened but curious, determined but hesitant
she concentrated on the file before her. Chance . . . .

		*Chapter 6*

	Fortuna opened her eyes and turned back to Rory and Katrina. She
smiled once again, but this time her look was far-away, deep in some
space that the Enforcers could not begin to fathom. Which made her
next comment so strange.

	"Going down." There was a jolt, and the floor under the kats feet
shook violently before a swift pain came and went around their
sensitive ears. She motioned with a claw and the door to the bathroom
opened itself, this time revealing not the exercise room they had all
come from, but instead, a dim room with the combined looks of the
Enforcer crime labs, hangers, and locker rooms. "What is that? And
will it smash us flat?"

	"No. It won't." With that she easily swung the unconscious Viper
over her shoulder and walked into the large room. As she walked
forward, overheard lights flickered after ages of disuse and blinked
on behind her. They cast pools of light that reflected off of a thin
layer of dust that lifted to the air in a cloud from under her
unimpeded treading of left foot, right foot. Rory and Katrina
followed behind her, Rory coughing as the dust entered his lungs,
Katrina as unaffected at Fortuna.  Looking at the drawers and lockers
and a strange old Enforcer training equipment littered through the
room Katrina broke the silence with her query for logic.

"What's going on, Fortuna? I thought we were leaving." The response
came without a pause or a break in stride or manner.

"You are leaving. All three of you. But it doesn't make sense to
leave a slaughter house without seeing the morgue, now does it?"
Katrina turned a bit pale but only muttered.

	"Must we?" Fortuna chuckled. 

	"Sorry. It happens, you know, my need to scare and harass and
annoy the Enforcers. It's just ground into me. At least now I know
why." Her gaze fuzzed over and then flashed back with sharp clarity.
"I'm rambling again, aren't I? Well, don't worry. The dead I have
killed now rest in easy pieces. And this house is not full of dead
kats. It is only full of memories." She placed Viper down in a seat
and worked for a moment with his paws, the rest of her body obscuring
Rory and Katrina's vision of her actions. When she stepped away, he
was securely manacled in a set of cuffs that looked to be without a
keyhole. She smiled an almost evil grin and then blushed in shame, as
if listening to a sudden reprimanding voice before adding a hole to
the lock and handing the key to Rory without a word. The two Enforcer
officers remained silent as well, not understanding the need for such
reverent silence, but feeling it all the same. The AI plowed another
dusty path to a wall-like computer and pushed a button. The screen
came to life in a light blue shade and clearly displayed a layout of
the entire house, showing the entrance foyer, the boiler room and
mechanics area used to run the AI and robotics, informing Rory and
Katrina that they were currently in a sub basement level under the
surface of the rest of the house. With an few moments work at the
keyboard, the rest of the lights came on, and a light wind of a
ventilation system began sweeping up the dust from the room. Fortuna
lifted Viper again and moved further into the area, vanishing around
a corner. The Commander and Lieutenant Commander increased their
efforts to keep up only to freeze in their tracks at the sight that
met them all. 

	"That's the..." Rory breathed, leaving the sentence unfinished.

	"Yes. I know." Katrina's voice remained as quiet as his had been.
Fortuna also chose to keep their volume.

	"There has never been built another like it. It is the height of
perfection even now, decades later."

	The three stood stock still and looked over the entombed expanse
of the Turbokat. The plane had remained in fine condition for its
years, mostly due to Fortuna's unconscious work on its preservation.
Seeing it, she wanted to slip into the cockpit, wrap her paws around
the controls and live the video file she had watched, soaring free in
the air instead of laying stagnant and bitter in her guardhouse. She
would have. She could have . . . . The time was not right. 
	
	Katrina turned from the plane to Fortuna and understood the
expression. A waiting. A truth untold. Something still buried. And
then the Enforcer detective in her mind began to piece together the
clues she had been given all day. With an almost audible click,
probably from her jaw lightly dropping, the full picture came into
clarity. 

	"Clawson and Furlong were the SWAT Kats..." she breathed as the
names, the deaths, the house, and the plane all joined into one
statement. Fortuna simply smiled.

	"Smart. That's what I call good research. The secret that no one
knew for almost 60 years, not even me, and she just says it out loud.
Maybe that's what they wanted in the end. An exorcism of these
ghosts." She walked past the plane, to the left and opened one of the
side lockers, withdrawing a helmet, mask, and a jumpsuit almost
identical to the one she was wearing. "Even if the ghosts were the
spirits of Justice and Freedom." She took a moment to replace the
items carefully into the locker before moving to one side of the pair
and pushing. The side panel of the wall moved away to show a hollowed
out area three feet back into the wall, stretching eight feet out and
two feet high. Within it lay a stone box on a low pedestal, simply
cut and plain in its memorial. On top of it lay another helmet, mask,
and jumpsuit like those in the locker, but with them was a strange
glove mechanism like that which Fortuna wore, a long shriveled mongo
pepper, and an age dried tiger-lily. There was a plaque on the side
facing them, the only item which had been allowed to grow dusty,
whether through a sense of poetry or irony, no one knew anymore.

	"Which one was he?" Rory asked with a brief hand motion to the
sepulchre. 

	"He was Chance Furlong. He was also called T-Bone of the SWAT
Kats." She had only just finished this statement when a hum of voices
began. At first too quiet to be anything but noticed, it steadily
grew to echo loudly, but not painfully through the hanger. The voices
belonged to no one the Enforcers recognized, but the conversation
made their identities amazingly clear.

	"Chance?! Chance, buddy are you alright? Whoa, look at the blood,
we've gotta get you to the hospital."

	"I don't want to look at the blood, Jake, I've already seen
enough. How's Burke?"

	"You don't want to know. Murry already went to call the police so
they'll bring round an ambulance....How could you just blow up like
that at him? What happened?"

	"He crossed the wrong line. It doesn't really matter."

	"Doesn't matter? Chance, listen to yourself. They'll send you to
jail. It won't be self-defense, everyone saw you throw the first
punch."

	"Jake, don't yell at me. I'm sorry, okay. I went berserk. I'll
take the consequences."

	"Oh, I know you will. Sorry, I just keep replaying Feral's voice
in my head, going on about throwing the book at us."

	"So what's new?"

	There was weak laughter by the disembodied pair and a tense
silence which couldn't seem to pass long enough. Rory and Katrina had
closed their eyes to help listen, while Fortuna made one slow motion
across the front of the dusty plaque, revealing its message. 

	"Uh, Chance? Wake up. You can't sleep now, okay, you have a
concussion."

	"I know. I'm not asleep. I'm just resting okay? I don't think
Dark Kat himself ever hit me as hard as Burke did that last punch."

	"Chance, I mean it. Open your eyes."

	"Don't worry. We're heroes. The stuff of legends. You and me both
know that legends never die."

	"You know, that was pretty poetic for you Chance. Maybe I'll
write it down somewhere and torment you with it for the rest of your
life. Better yet, I'll write it on your tombstone so you can spend
your eternity of afterlife knowing you once wrote something so cheesy
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ." There was another pause, but
this time, the silence was not tense, but heavy, and the sound of
sniffling and speech broken in grief made the ending clear. "Yeah.
That's what I'll do . . . ." The sounds ended and left the hanger in
a deeper gloom than before. 

	As he opened his eyes, Rory understood that this gloom held an
important difference between it and the rest of the house. Where
gloom equated with fear outside this place of meaning, here it only
expressed the pain and sadness of loss and mourning. Which was why it
startled him out of his empathetic depression to see Fortuna smiling
as if she had just won the lottery. He opened his mouth to ask her,
question the ridiculous grin on her face, but she instantly laid a
claw to his lips and pointed to the now clear surface of the tomb's
plaque. Reading it, he nudged Katrina in the side and drew her eyes
to it as well. In bright letters the bronze plaque proclaimed, 

	"WE ARE HEROES. THE STUFF OF LEGENDS. LEGENDS NEVER DIE."
	
	He removed his blaster from his holster and placed it on the tomb
with the other items. Katrina nodded her approval of the item as
Fortuna guided them back from the space and the lockers began to move
back by itself. A golden gleam blinded both Enforcers as a brief
crack of the full afternoon sun hit them both in the eyes. It came
from an exit at the far side of the hanger. Katrina raised an eyebrow
in true scientific fashion to Fortuna who only tipped an imaginary
hat to her, before hugging her goodbye. With that hug, Katrina
vanished. Rory, being a kat who really wasn't built for the melodrama
or mystery of a real legend's ending, asked where his Lieutenant
Commander had gone. Or at least, he tried to. For about two seconds
he continued talking after Fortuna had pressed her lips to his in
farewell and thanks before the concept hit him properly that one is
kissed by an attractive she-kat, one should respond properly and
return the favor. Feeling her absent, he opened his eyes to find only
the hanger around him, and the tiny crack of sunlight at the end of
it. Without a word further, he took the still unconscious Viper over
his shoulder, and went to meet his troops.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------

	While curiosity burned in the Lieutenants and troopers, they were
almost all too well-trained  to ask about the specifics of the
adventure into the strange house. Those that had been given slightly
different training on the issue of asking questions, mainly the MEET
Force, all matters were explained by their Lieutenant Commander as
she stepped out of her VR equipment.

	"What do you mean I vanished from the network? How long did you
search for my signature? An hour? That's ridiculous. And your chat
programs weren't going through? That does it, I want that S.M.E.V. in
the repair shop on the double. What happened? Nothing happened. It
was a homemade patch network someone had left behind when one of the
older super villians had tried to rewire the city. How would I know
what happened inside that old shack? You'll just have to read the
Commander's report on Viper's capture when it is released to the
public." 

	The answers by the Commander were of equal quality and much
shorter. Most only consisted of a promise to include everything in
his report. Due to the nature of this assignment, the Commander
announced that he was returning to his apartment to rest briefly and
write his duty report, which would be turned in the next morning. Not
one trooper objected.

	Katrina was busy at home that night, noticing that the
revelations of the day had inspired her to rearrange her furniture
again and to go through her photo albums and organize them. At the
same time she was searching through all the Internet sites she could
find that professed to keep accurate information on the brief
vigilant career of the SWAT Kats, a radical pair of pilots/heroes who
had worked mainly in the area of MegaKat City. The phone range at
midnight. Paws still sticky from the photo glue, she rushed to answer
it.

	"Hello?"

	"Katrina? How are you?"

	"Fine Rory, just hiking for my life down memory lane." He
laughed.

	"Is it a she-kat thing?"

	"I guess. So, what can I do you for?"

	"Um...I need your help."

	"With what? Viper isn't giving any more trouble is he?"

	"Oh no, nothing like that. I just don't know what to write on
this blasted report!" At his exasperated tone she began laughing out
loud. "I'm glad you think this is funny, because you're probably
going to be grilled by the Commodore too if I don't have this on his
desk tomorrow." She calmed down long enough to wipe her other paw and
switch the phone to it.

	"I'm sorry Rory. Really. Come on over to my place. We'll see if
some cocoa and creative brainstorming really can come up with a
barely plausible story."

	"So we aren't going to tell the truth?"

	"I'm not if you're not Mr. Commander of the Enforcers."

	"Good point. See you in fifteen minutes."

		*Epilogue*

	Mayor Calico Briggs was not having a good day. And that was
before she received the warning note from Calamity Jane about the
bomb under the First Megakat Bank five minutes ago. So her reaction
to Enforcer Commander Rory Tailor's arrival at noon for his
appointment was less than lady-like.

	"You called Mrs. Mayor?" He settled down comfortably into the
seat before her desk, in the confident manner of a man who has faced
this situation enough times to feel calm about it.

	"Yes, Tailor, I wanted you in here so I could inform you in
person that this promotion my son just received will in no way helps
your funding from City Hall this year."  She smoothed a stray wisp of
her grey hair while glancing in concern out the window at bank across
the street.

	"I understand completely Mayor Briggs. You son is a very
competent-" He was cut off as she stood to her high-heel enhanced
imposing height of five feet 9 inches and glowered at him in his
chair.

	"I hate to skip the conversational niceties Tailor but I must
inform you of the fact that I received this note approximately five
minutes ago from the explosives stuntwoman Calamity Jane." She thrust
the paper under his whiskers just long enough for him to understand
the peculiars of the situation and then slammed her fisted paw, with
the note crumpled in it, on her desk. "I demand Enforcer action. And
this time, I don't want to have to pay for your eight hour jaunt into
an abandoned garage!" He was on his feet and moving for the door
before his "Yes Mayor" could even get fully out. But before he could
exit, there was an immense roaring sound from the street behind him
and a plane blasted by, avoiding the two building, but lifting away a
large truck outside the bank. The tarp covering the top was blown
away revealing a huge obviously armed explosive device. It then left
for the vicinity of the harbor. 

	The Mayor stood unsteadily for a moment before flexing her jaw in
a testing method and turning to him.

	"That was the Turbokat. But the SWAT Kats have been gone for
decades. We thought they died. . . .Why are you smiling like that
Commander?" 

	Rory shrugged lightly. "Why Mayor, didn't you know that legends
never die?" With that the jet came by again, this time slow enough to
show a glimpse at the pilot. A she-kat with tiger-striped shoulders
in familiar helmet and mask and jumpsuit sat at the controls with the
weapons specialist's seat empty behind her. As she flew over the
Mayor's office, she visibly looked down through the window, smirked,
and winked to the pair before continuing on. 

	"That's not T-Bone and Razor? How did that she-kat get that jet?
How did she...?" When the Major turned back she saw that the Enforcer
Commander had already taken his leave. She rushed out to the hallway
and saw him stepping onto the elevator.

	"Tailor, you come back here! I know you know what's going on and
I demand that you walk right back into this office!" Enforcer
Commander Rory Tailor pressed the down and floor buttons. 

	"I'm sorry Mayor Briggs. Duty calls." The doors slid shut on his
light confident smile.

	"TAILOR!!!"



Fini.