Living in the Past
Chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
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Title: LIVING IN THE PAST
Author: ulyferal
Rating: K+
Warnings: Profanity and some violence.
Disclaimer: “SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron,” its characters and concepts are copyright to Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc and are used without permission.
Chapter 8: The Time is Now
Going with T-Bone’s suggestion, Feral ordered those not involved in the running of the camp to do calisthenics every day; morning, noon, and night. He designed it to accommodate all the different ages and disabilities of the people; that way there were no excuses about participating. Not only would they feel better, but they would be too tired to cause trouble.
With plans in place to prevent another riot, he could now concentrate his attention on the spy missions. But, his first order wasn’t well liked by T-Bone.
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“No!”
“I’m not giving you an option here. I may not think much of you two, but the people here either hero worship or fear you. This behavior will work to keep them calm and/or obedient but only if one of you is here at all times, so that means you separate,” Feral argued.
Before his partner could snarl back, Razor interrupted. “He’s right, buddy. With one of us here, peace can be maintained. I’ll go with Feral and you with Felina.”
T-Bone’s mouth hung open a moment in shocked surprise then snapped shut. He still didn’t like it but had no legitimate argument against the order since his partner also agreed with it. “Fine, whatever,” he sulked.
Steele and Morgan sat listening but didn’t comment as they weren’t being allowed on the spying missions anyway.
“Good! Then here’s what we’re going to do. Felina will circulate the market every morning, trading goods we need while keeping her ears open for any rumor of the Pastmaster’s doings. You will circulate through the tavern, front gate of the castle, blacksmith’s shop, stables, and butcher shop.”
“Butcher shop?” T-Bone asked, puzzled.
“Hunters gather there as do the castle cooks. Each might hear and/or trade gossip that possibly could contain information useful to us,” Morgan said helpfully before Feral could respond.
“The same is true of the vegetable vendors, which is where I’ll be trolling,” Felina added.
“Correct. Keep your heads down low and your ears and eyes alert,” Feral finished. “You two have the day shift, and Razor and I will take the evening shift.”
T-Bone sighed. He absolutely hated getting up early.
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Before their first spy mission, the four spies went outside the rear entrance of their hideaway. They moved far enough away so the guard wouldn’t see or hear what the two vigilantes were about to reveal. With great reluctance, the two pulled their masks off and stared glumly at the Enforcers. Feral’s mouth dropped open in stunned disbelief while Felina just stared in confusion, not having met either tom before.
“Kat’s Alive! You two?” he blurted, fury snapping from his eyes.
“Uh… obviously you know these two, Uncle. Mind clueing me in?” Felina asked.
“I kicked them off the force for crashing their jet into our newly built flight line,” Feral snapped.
Felina’s eyebrows flew up. “That was you guys?”
The two nodded while giving Feral the evil eye. It still rankled he blamed them for something he did, but there was no point getting into that right now.
“I can’t believe you managed to pull the wool over my eyes all this time,” Feral huffed, infuriated at himself for failing to see past their disguises.
“Huh! Actually the evidence was right there if any bothered to really look, Uncle. Two ex-enforcers, a salvage yard, a tactical/technical genius and top rated gunner plus an expert pilot equals two vigilantes,” Felina said, shaking her head at the pair’s sheer audacity, a smile tugging at her lips.
Her uncle, however, didn’t find any of it very amusing.
“So, are you going to deep six us when we return?” Chance asked, pulling his mask on again, his tone bitter.
Feral eyed the big tom for a long moment. “I don’t know.”
Both ex-enforcers could only gape at him in disbelief. Feral said no more as he turned his back on them, returning inside the cavern. Felina shrugged, not knowing what to say to them so chose to follow her uncle.
“What the hell?” T-Bone growled.
“I don’t know, buddy. Guess we’ll have to wait until we’re home to find out,” Razor said sourly, heading back inside as well.
T-Bone remained outside for some fifteen minutes, stewing, before shoving the subject aside and rejoining the others.
However, at every opportunity, he would badger Feral for an answer, but the Commander would only give him a bland look and stay closed mouthed on the subject. T-Bone finally gave up and did his job, which wasn’t too onerous, as working with Felina was rather enjoyable. What surprised him, though, was how well his partner got along with Feral on their missions. That he couldn’t fathom.
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Present time…
Feral sighed and stared out the entrance of the waterfall, still carefully hidden from the villagers using the lake for their daily needs. He had been reflecting on the past two month’s trials, tribulations, deaths, and sorrows of their time in the past. It was the worst period in his life, but soon it would all be over, if their plans worked out as they hoped.
They’d finally gotten the break they’d been waiting for – the night the Pastmaster meant to cast his spell that would enslave the Queen. He and Jake had wasted no time returning to camp and briefing everyone. Felina had been immediately dispatched to retrieve the Queen, the rest of them planned their attack on the Pastmaster’s castle, and the people had been briefed they might be going home within a few days. The result of that news was the hum of activity behind him as the castaways of time cleared the floor of all signs of their habitation.
He had told them there was no hurry to break down their homes yet, but the unanimous vote was to do it anyway and simply sleep in the open. They wanted to be ready to go home at a moment’s notice. He couldn’t blame them so allowed them to do what they wanted as it made them feel they were doing something to help their escape from here.
Turning back inside, he spotted one of the SWAT Kats paroling the area a short distance from him. Morgan was across the lake doing the same thing. Though he didn’t like it, Feral knew the SWAT Kats’ presence was why the people were staying calm. The brawny, arrogant one of the pair was not in sight, likely he was sleeping since he wasn’t much of a morning person. There was no danger nor anymore spying needed done, so Feral had no problem with the tabby catching some zzz’s.
He glanced back at the entrance. Felina had been gone a little over two and a half days so far. He knew she would have already reached Megalith City, but it would take another day or so for her and the Queen’s army to make the return trip. Sighing, he turned away and decided perhaps he should take a nap as well so headed for his, still standing, hut.
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The fourth day since Felina’s departure promised to be another warm, clear one when Feral was rudely rousted from his bed by an excited guard who burst into his hut at the crack of dawn. His room mates groaned in annoyance but stopped the moment they heard what the guard was saying.
“Commander! She’s back and with the Queen!” he shouted excitedly.
Feral lunged to his feet, with everyone else in his hut right on his heels, all dashing toward the waterfall entrance at a run. A few early risers had heard the guard’s cry and were staring with hope in their eyes as they watched their leader run by.
Stepping through the cold curtain of water, gasping briefly at the sudden wetting, Feral stopped on the ledge and stared to the northeast.
The rising sun shone off a sea of chain mail and the sound of many hooves thundered toward them. At the head of the rapidly moving army was the Queen, her standard waving in the wind, and Felina by her side. He felt like whooping for joy but settled for saying, “Thank God she got here with enough time to rest her army.”
“I agree, but I hope we can get them all under cover before they’re spotted,” Razor said worriedly, staring around and up at the sky.
With lips pursed, Feral shared his worry, but the Queen’s army was already at a full gallop so there was nothing else they could do but hope none came to the lake to see their arrival.
It took just under twenty minutes before the troop reached the lake then hurried on to the waterfall entrance. With Felina leading the way, the army urged their horses to climb the slippery ledge and through the cold waterfall. Sputtering from the cold and the horses squealing their displeasure, the soldiers urged their mounts to follow Felina to a large area where they could set up camp but still be separate from the future kats.
Feral, the SWAT Kats and Morgan stood at the far edge of the ledge, out of the way, watching for danger as the huge group marched past. Queen Callista gave them a brief, tired smile and a nod before passing by them, gasping when the cold water doused her but never stopping her forward movement and quickly vanishing inside. It took fifteen minutes for the very last soldier to disappear within, giving the watchers a thorough soaking. They remained unmoving as they kept guard, tense and nervous. When the last soldier disappeared within, Feral turned and followed them, leaving his companions outside.
As the army headed for their campsite, they encountered a strange group of Kats hurrying by them carrying brooms made of marsh grasses tied together and large smooth, flat stones. Giving the army a curious glance, the group continued on to the outside. Their job was to erase all trace of the army’s passing. While guards watched over them, the volunteers worked feverishly to get their job done before the brightening day brought the usual villagers to the lake. Some swept the ground further back from the shore while others used the stones as shovels to scrape and smooth the mud, attempting to hide any sign of the many horses hooves that had passed by.
The SWAT Kats and Morgan watched and waited for the workers to be done, which took at least thirty minutes, inspected it to insure it was sufficient, then allowed the workers to run back inside, fairly confident that they’d done the best they could to hide the army’s arrival.
Meanwhile, Feral stood with the Queen and Felina and watched as Callista’s well trained army went about setting up camp.
“How was your trip, your majesty? No problems, I trust?” Feral asked politely.
“None, Sir Feral. I’m pleased we made such good time on the return trip. As soon as my tent is set up and food has been served, I wish to have a meeting and hear what plans thee have finalized for defeating the Pastmaster,” Callista requested, wiping water from her face with a lace handkerchief.
“We’ll be standing by, your majesty. I’m glad you managed to get here quickly enough to allow your army time to rest and catch their breath. A fresh army will be much more successful than a tired one,” Feral observed.
“Aye, was good fortune indeed that thee heard the evil one’s plans far enough in advance for me to arrive so early. Such luck hopefully will follow us into battle later tonight,” she said, smiling.
“I hope for the same. I’ll leave you to get some rest and change into dry clothes after your hard trip.” Feral turned away and noticed how far the soldiers had gotten with setting up camp. “Your soldiers are very efficient. The camp is already up and running as we talked,” he paused to comment.
Tents for officers and the Queen were already raised, horses were being fed and watered, and food was quickly being prepared. The lower ranking soldiers had shed their armor and set up sleeping places while they waited to be fed, all with the minimum of talking and noise. Very well trained indeed!
“Thank you. I’m quite proud of my troops. Most have been with me for many years and are the best I could ask for,” Callista said with pride.
Feral could certainly agree. He nodded and smiled at her… one leader to another, then bowed respectfully, Felina doing the same beside him, before they turned about and walked away.
There was excitement among the Kats of the future as they watched the army get settled. All their hopes for returning home lay with these soldiers. Feral had already ordered them to keep their distance as they didn’t want to further contaminate the people of the past, so they had to satisfy themselves with watching from a distance as their visitors set up camp.
Though he could see they wanted to stop and ask him and Felina questions, they, thankfully, restrained themselves and just continued to watch the visitors. Feral had reached the meeting area when T-Bone caught up with them. He was alone.
“How’s it going with the cleanup?” Feral asked, taking a seat on the ground near their firepit, Felina doing the same.
“Razor and Morgan are inspecting it now. I thought I should come back in and insure our people behaved themselves. I circulated among them, and things are calm and peaceful. All the gossip is about how much they hope to be going home soon. All are obeying your stricture about keeping their distance from the soldiers. Glad to see them finally listening,” T-Bone commented, dropping to a seated position too.
“If all works out like we’ve planned, they will be going home,” Feral said. Now all he could hope for was their plans didn’t fail; that would be a mess he didn’t want to contemplate at all.
Before T-Bone could say anything else, his partner, and Morgan walked up and sat down with them.
Without prompting, Razor reported, “All’s well outside. Don’t think we could have done any better.” Then he asked, “So, when do we pow wow with the Queen?”
“As soon as she calls us, which will be after she’s had a chance to refresh herself and the food is served. I’m guessing they hadn’t stopped to eat for awhile, which explains the large amount of food I saw being prepared,” Feral answered.
Felina gave her uncle a tired sigh. “She wished to get here as fast as she could, so everyone ate cold rations on horseback when we rose and left at a gallop just before dawn this morning, so, yeah, we’re all pretty hungry.”
T-Bone sniffed the air. “Well it shouldn’t be too long. I can smell the odor of pepper pot stew cooking, makes me kinda of hungry as well. We didn’t get breakfast at all.”
Feral snorted. He was hungry too but wasn’t going to comment on it. The big tom glanced over at the Queen’s encampment and noticed a number of soldiers eyeing the kats from the future, who were going through their morning calisthenics, with bemused interest. As long as they just looked and neither spoke to each other, it was fine with him.
Steele walked up to the group from the direction of the waterfall entrance.
T-Bone looked up at him and asked. “What’s up?”
“I was just checking outside. Some of the villagers are out there now, but no one seems alarmed in any way so I think we can relax about them finding anything suspicious,” the thin, blond Enforcer said, sighing, sitting down not far from the Commander.
“That’s good news. I suspect none of the Pastmaster’s soldiers will be coming by as he seems to have decided to keep them close in the castle in preparation for tonight,” Feral said.
“You’re probably right about that, which is a good thing right now. Everyone should get as much rest as they can while we have the chance,” Razor murmured.
“Agreed,” Feral grunted. They all went silent, lost in their own thoughts.
“Looks like we’re wanted…” Razor spoke up suddenly some twenty minutes later, looking past them to a liveried young tom striding toward them from the direction of the Queen’s camp.
Everyone looked in that direction and rose to their feet. Time to meet with the Queen.
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