Refuge in Audacity

In the end, it hadn’t been too difficult to figure it out. At least, not for her. All Felina Feral had to do was a little digging, ask the right questions, and ask the right people.

“Those two? Joined at the hip,” said one pilot. “You’d think they were brothers separated at birth.”

“Always got into trouble at some point,” recalled another. “Especially Furlong. I think Clawson was always trying to keep him grounded.”

“Hotshot and Sureshot,” added his partner. “Couldn’tve come up with better calsigns myself for those two.”

“It’s a shame they’re gone. They were two of the best pilots we had.”

Funny, Felina mused as she drove out of Megakat City limits, that two of the best fighter pilots the Enforcers had were discharged roughly a year before two ace pilots in vigilante garb randomly showed up to protect the city. Two pilots that happened to now be working in a metal scrapyard. Plenty of material to build a jet… in about a year.

“Along with missiles,” she muttered, getting out of her car once she parked in the salvage yard and making her way to the garage. “And Glovatrixes, and every other mode of transportation imaginable.”

It was Furlong who stopped to greet her first, but the taller kat barely got a word out before she grabbed him in a headlock and dragged him inside.

“Lieutenant Feral?” Clawson looked up in surprise from his work. “What are you…?”

“Save it, Clawson, and stop giving me that look.” Felina then turned to her startled captive. “And, quit milking it, Furlong. You’re not blue in the face yet.”

“Couldja’ ‘least tell us what this is about?” rasped Furlong. He was feigning, she noticed, to struggle under her grip. She was pretty sure he could have gotten out of the headlock in a heartbeat, or even stopped her before she managed to put an arm around him.

“Could you two possibly have made it any more obvious that you’re the SWAT Kats?!”

The silence was deafening as both kats froze in place, Furlong stopping mid-struggle.

After what seemed like countless minutes, Clawson managed, “Well, in our defense, it’s been five years, and even Dark Kat hasn’t noticed, so…”

“That, and you never asked,” added Furlong.

She wordlessly tightened her grip.

“She knows, Jake,” Furlong gasped. “We’re gonna hafta’ kill ‘er.”

Clawson rolled his eyes and finally moved away from the car he was working on, his voice now slipping into the familiar tone of a certain masked weapons officer. “Alright, Lieutenant. You found out.” He eyed her cautiously. “What happens now?”

“Now?” Felina finally let go of Furlong, the latter rubbing the back of his neck. “Now you tell me what we can do to help each other.”

 END