Vanished
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Title: Vanished
Author: ulyferal
Rating: T
Warnings: Mild profanity, 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: Troubles all Around
For the third straight day since a goodly section of his city went missing, Mayor Manx was once more at his desk slogging through reports after a restless night of little sleep. He felt overwhelmed. Despite the excellent help of Callie’s assistant, he still had to actually read and make a decision on everything the young she-kat brought him as she didn’t have the authority nor experience to handle it.
He rubbed his aching head and drank his fourth cup of tea. Now he knew just how hard Callie worked to keep the city running. He was a little ashamed to realize just how often he left her to handle it all on her own. If he wasn’t careful, she could easily take this job from him as she already did most of it. Now that was a sobering thought.
Shaking his head, he went back to the work in front of him. The report he was reviewing that moment was from Major Clawmore. He frowned as he read and got progressively more disturbed as he went down the page.
It seemed the mob presence in the city was stepping up their presence. They, like some of the city, seemed to think none of the omegas were around. Though Manx would like to think so too, Major Clawmore made it clear that only forty-eight hours had passed, and, since it took the omegas months to show up sometimes, it didn’t mean some of them weren’t still here with them.
They also didn’t know if the SWAT Kats were around yet or not. Clawmore had to function as if they weren’t and had beefed up security as best he could. In this most recent report, he told the Mayor that criminal activity had increased to an alarming rate. He and his troops as well as the additionally hired security forces had been doing their best to nip the problem before it could escalate, but their efforts were less than successful as the mob seemed to be determined to push their obvious advantage to the fullest as no one knew if the missing part of the city would ever return.
Manx dropped the report to his desk and stood up. He went to his study window and stared out at the gardens. It soothed him a little, but when he turned his gaze toward the city, it made him sick to see such a flat skyline. From his home in the country, he could still make out the grand clock tower and, in the distance, the Megakat Tower and Enforcer Headquarters twin towers … now there was nothing but empty sky.
Shuddering, he returned to his desk. All that could be done was being done. He couldn’t worry about it as he had enough problems just keeping the city intact for now. It was up to Clawmore to keep the peace as best he could. He just hoped fervently that Dark Kat wasn’t just biding his time and planning on taking what was left of his poor city. That thought left him chilled and unhappy, but, once more, he shoved it aside and got back to work.
‘Callie would be shocked and proud of me right now, but I’d trade all I have for her to be back,’ he thought wanly.
~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~
Morning’s light peeked slowly into the cave as the bright yellow sun rose on another day. Its light fell on an already awake group preparing to leave on their search. It had taken nearly all night, but the Lansoo had managed to pick up the most minuscule of signals. They insured it wasn’t coming from the cities in the valley they’d left. Their own communities had shone brightly on their device, which helped them determine a starting point for their search.
Standing on the ledge, ready to depart, the group waited as the leaders decided the best route to take.
“Our readings indicate the only concentration of any energy signature is due east some twenty miles,” one of the Lansoo told Feral and Dumswell.
The two looked off in the indicated direction. It would be a hard and tiring march through a lot of broken landscape. Feral sighed and glanced back at his group. The scientists were the least fit of all of them, but they’d held up, surprisingly, so far.
“We need to cover as much ground with few breaks as we can. Will you four be able to handle it?” He directed his comments at the two Pumadyne scientists, Dr. Greenbox, and Hard Drive.
“I can go as long as you can, Commander,” Hard Drive derisively snorted.
“I’ll be alright, sir. I work out and run daily,” one of the scientists assured him.
“I’d hate to be the one that held us up, Commander, but I’m not much of an athlete. I’ll do what I can,” the other responded, rather shamefaced but with determination in his eyes.
“I’m fit, Commander, and worked out in prison as well,” Greenbox said quietly.
“Good. How about you three?” he asked the Lansoo.
“We are capable of traveling long distances without difficulties,” one of them assured Feral.
Feral nodded then looked at the humans. He grimaced mentally. They were the weakest of their group he’d noted on their way here. They required the most breaks and their shorter legs made it harder for them to keep up with the other aliens of their group.
Dr. Linstone saw his look. “I’m sorry we’re not built for long distances and have trouble keeping up with your longer legs, but we are determined to not hold you up. Right?” he asked his fellow humans… they nodded solemnly. Colonel Dumswell merely grunted; he’d had no trouble keeping pace with the aliens.
“Very well. Then let’s be off. We have a very long distance to go,” Feral said briskly, leading the way off the mountain.
As they had planned, he and Dumswell had divided up the warriors and instructed them on who they were responsible for and who to take orders from. Razor and T-Bone voluntarily split up so there was a skilled, modern warrior with each group. The Lansoo became part of Dumswell’s group while Feral took care of his own group from Megakat City. Viper chose to go with Dumswell while Hard Drive stayed with Feral.
The division hardly mattered at first as the group moved as one down the mountain, but when they began their trek across the devastated landscape, the warriors took the outside perimeter of the group while the non-combatants stayed within.
Feral and Dumswell had prevailed upon the Yik-Yik to be the rear guard as their natural armor made a good wall of defense. They had agreed without argument. The group made an odd sight trudging along, plumes of dust marking their passage.
Moving across the open landscape was nerve-wracking as they didn’t know if they were being observed.
“I doubt it,” Razor had responded to the voiced concern by one of the non-combatants. “There’s no life here, and we’ve already seen that whatever is still running on this planet is totally focused on the valley we came from.”
Others agreed with him, so the scientists and Lansoo relaxed a bit and concentrated on just getting to their destination.
Razor’s belief proved correct as they encountered absolutely nothing but the chilling signs of a race that destroyed itself. Someone had thought perhaps alien invaders had done this, but one of the Lansoo shook their head.
“There is no sign of differing weaponry around nor damaged or destroyed alien vehicles. All we’ve seen so far are the devices of one race raging against another. Sad to think they chose oblivion to peace,” it said sadly.
The Kats could only agree with that sentiment. Though their world was under constant strife from the omegas, they would never allow this to happen. No war on their world had ever reached this degree of destruction and, hopefully, it never would. It was very sobering and depressing to their spirits to see such a thing in real life rather than in fiction.
It took more than half the day to finally reach the origin of the signal. When they stared at the mountain face, they weren’t very happy. Sighing, they began to climb once more. The Kats found they had to help several of the humans climb up by carrying them on their backs.
The signal stopped near the top of a high peak and it was getting late… dusk was falling as climbing up here had taken a very long time both due to the need to help some of their members in climbing and because of the more treacherous quality of the mountain’s steep surface.
They finally reached a very large ledge. Ahead of them was a huge entrance that was nearly invisible from the ground and was deeply shadowed in the lowering sunlight. There was a huge door that was closed, and there was no sign of how to get in.
“Well, any of you genius’ have an idea how we gain entrance to this place?” Dumswell asked, turning to their scientists.
Razor, Jameson and the Lansoo stepped forward and studied the door intently. The rest kept a watchful eye for any traps. T-Bone and Feral had moved closer, splitting up to study the outer edges of the door carefully. Dumswell kept his gun at the ready and had the non-coms stay close together with the other guards surrounding them.
Razor grunted and raised his glovatrix. He was very glad Pumadyne had what he needed to create a pair of these for him and T-Bone. He pressed a button and a bright blue light shone on a spot of the door. The laser seemed to be doing nothing, but, finally, there was a soft chuff sound and the door popped open with a hiss of expelled foul air.
The ones standing near quickly turned their heads and backed away, allowing the long dead air to rush out into the growing night. When all was silent again, Razor and T-Bone moved slowly forward and peered in. The Lansoo had immediately moved to stay with the guarded group. Feral moved up behind the two but didn’t press forward. The pair were good at recon and he had a job of his own… protecting the non-coms … none of this just charging forward as was his usual behavior … caution would get him home, not reckless bravery.
Nerves taut, Razor and T-Bone stepped through the massive door. Their eyes searched the whole area. Despite the apparent age of everything they’d seen, the interior of this place was fairly pristine with invisible lighting that helped them see the long corridor that lead to another heavy door.
Their first steps on the smooth surfaced floor of some kind of black material were silent and provoked no reaction from anything… so far. The walls were a creme color and made of a reflective surface that sent their moving shapes scurrying weirdly ahead of them.
Teeth clenched, every nerve on edge, T-Bone began to walk down the corridor with Razor mirroring him at his side. The rest of their group remained in the door, waiting and watching.
The intense silence was eerie and hard to take. T-Bone was dying to make some kind of noise just to relieve the tension but didn’t dare. Within minutes, they managed to reach the other door safely.
While T-Bone guarded, Razor studied this new door. This time, Razor couldn’t see anything that resembled some kind of keypad or door knob or anything. The door was smooth with no protrusions anywhere. Gritting his teeth, he went to study the edges of the door, hoping to find hinges… again nothing. He hissed.
“What’s wrong, buddy?” T-Bone asked, not turning from his guarding.
“The door is absolutely smooth, no hinges, nothing to show how it opens. I suspect it’s controlled from elsewhere and simply slides either up or down, or slides into the rock on the side of the wall.”
“What about cutting a door then?”
“Yeah, I thought of that, but if it’s made of a metal or material unknown to us, we may have nothing that will penetrate it but… I’ll give it a try anyway.” So saying, Razor moved to the center and used his arc welder, but after only a few moments, he could tell that wasn’t working and switched to his laser. After another few minutes, he was forced to give up as even the laser made no mark on the smooth surface.
Angry and worried, he headed back to the door with T-Bone following. The group stepped back to allow the pair to step out.
“Nothing I have will penetrate that door and there’s nothing to show what controls it anywhere,” Razor reported bitterly.
“Let me take a look,” Hard Drive spoke, pushing through the group to stand with them.
Razor eyed him then shrugged. “Sure, why not. Let’s go.”
T-Bone and Razor walked with Hard Drive back to the smooth door and waited as the techno thief searched the surface with his energy. After several minutes, Hard Drive admitted defeat. “Crud, there’s nothing for me to find.”
“Hey, at least you tried. Let’s see if our allies have something.” T-Bone turned about, and the three returned to the door again.
“Well, anyone else have something different from us that might work?” Razor asked the group at large.
The Lansoo shook their collective heads. “Sorry, as non warriors, we have nothing that is a weapon and our tools will not help you.”
“We could attempt to blast it, but that will tell whoever is monitoring this place they have company,” Colonel Dumswell grunted, disgusted and concerned about their chances of getting into this place.
“There’s only one other option… find another way in,” Razor said grimly.
“It’s getting dark; how are we going to search for another entrance?” Feral asked.
“We see in dark… we search,” a Yik-Yik responded promptly.
Eyebrows raised, Feral and Dumswell eyed the turtle-like creatures a moment.
“Well hell, if you think you can, by all means go ahead, but be really careful… find the entrance but don’t go in. Come back and tell us. We don’t want to lose you to a security trap,” Dumswell directed them.
Nodding their ponderous heads, the Yik-Yik split up, two going to the right and two going left of the entrance, searching along the rock walls of the mountain. With nothing else they could do, the rest of the group took the opportunity to rest.
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