HOW FAR THE MIGHTY HAVE COME

Chapter Two: Set Ablaze

T-Bone's eye twitched as he slowly raised his right arm in the air from his seated position on a lab stool. Twisting his wrist, he heard the joints squeak. Nodding slowly, he murmured, "Needs a bit of oil, but I think it'll be ok, Professor."

He yawned as he watched Professor Hackle gently pull the mechanical arm down then begin to solder the smaller wires together at the elbow joint. T-Bone's uniform was down around his hips and revealing only a white tank top that he wore underneath. His head was covered by the black bandanna, he and Razor wore to hide their identities.

Professor Hackle finished his soldering, blew on the hot ends to cool them before tucking them into the small open hatch then snapping the lid closed to seal it up. He reached for a small lubricant bottle and gently applied it to the joint. Finished, he took the metal paw in his own and twisted it experimentally......no more squeak. He released it, pushed up his dark goggles then reached for his cane. He stepped back, a pleased look on his face.

T-Bone smiled, moving the new arm slowly, getting used to it. "Thanks, Professor. I don't know how I would have gone on without both my paws." He said gratefully.

"You are quite welcome, lad. I am glad to have been of assistance. Now, you should have a decent range of motion.....just don't overtax it. You've been sedated for months now and must take it easy getting back in shape. Don't rush it. I know its hard for someone like you to take it slow but your recovery will go much smoother if you do." Hackle gently admonished him.

"I know and I'll do my best to obey but you're right. It will be hard since so much of my life has been lost to me. Everything after the incident is just so much mush." T-Bone complained mildly.

"I understand. But it was necessary, so that your body wouldn't reject the new limb." Hackle said, patting the big tom's leg in commiseration. "Just take it easy for a little bit longer, lad."

"Yeah, I promise." T-Bone sighed in resignation then took a deep breath "I do feel much better and I'm anxious to get back to work." He said getting up from the stool and walking over to a nearby mirror.

The image staring back at him showed one yellow arm with his trademark stripes and the other looked like a car transmission had been attached to his shoulder. It was still a shock and he was forced to close his eyes a moment.

Behind him, Professor Hackle quietly hobbled to his side. "Give it time lad. You don't want to do too much to soon. Your body is just not ready for your usual full action, my friend." He said quietly then presented something to the tom. "Here, this will help you feel less......different." He handed T-Bone a sleeve that was so well made it appeared as if it had been ripped off a real Kat.

Surprised and pleased, T-Bone took the sleeve and slid it on like a glove except it went all the way to his shoulder. The Professor had even thought to make hook ups on the sleeve that matched small pins on the arm which held it firmly in place so it wouldn't slid off too easily.

He looked back in the mirror and was astonished at how much like his real arm it appeared.

"Wow. Great work, Professor. No one would know its not my real arm."

"I'm glad you like it." Hackle said, sighing mentally in relief. He had been concerned T-Bone would be upset by the covering.

T-Bone continued to stare at his image. He sighed inwardly. Yeah, it looked like his arm but he knew it wasn't, however, he refused to dwell on that.....he was alive and that's what counted. He reached up and detached the sleeve and pulled it off.

"Thanks for this, Professor." T-Bone said indicating the sleeve he held in his paw. "It will help when I want to look normal in my other identity but as a SWAT Kat, I don't really care about that so much and it might get torn up on the job. Everyone knows T-Bone lost his arm so hiding it is unnecessary." Hackle nodded in agreement and was pleased T-Bone had accepted this change to his body with good grace.

"I believe your partner is ready for you in the West Wing Hanger." He said, changing the subject.

"Oh, okay......hey, Professor......what happens if my SWAT Kat duties trashes your work......" T-Bone asked in concern.

"Don't worry. I've made three identical ones but after that...it will be your partner's responsibility." Hackle told him reassuringly. "Blessings on you." He said over his shoulder as he made his way out of the lab.

T-Bone smiled after the elderly tom and called out, "Have a good night Professor." He left by an opposite door of the lab using his new metal paw to push open the door, stepping into a hallway beyond. As he walked down it, he received a few awkward glances from enforcers and civilians alike. He ignored them as he made his way to a security door and entered a six digit pass code.

The doors slid open and he stepped through letting them slide closed behind him. Not far from the entryway there was a small office and sitting at the desk inside was Razor who looked up at the sound of the door opening.

"Hey there......you're lookin' good!" He said with a broad smile of welcome, getting up from his rolling chair to stand before his partner.

T-Bone raised his metal arm and rolled his wrist around, bending the elbow joint. "Hackle does great work."

"That's for sure…let's see if mine is any better." Razor said with a smile and motioned T-Bone along with him to his desk. "Your glovatrix."

"Hey....they're black!" T-Bone said in surprise.

"Yeah and so is all our new stuff." Razor said smiling. "Black and green are our new colors. This glovatrix is for your use for now until I get your internal arms system online." He told his partner.

"But I liked red and blue." T-Bone objected.

"I did too, but....well with all the new upgrades......weapons, stealth technology....." Razor started to tell him before the tabby interrupted.

"Stealth technology?"

"Yeah, courtesy of Feral. He's accepted the fact we're in this fight too so we got some hand-me-down tech."

"Stuff that doesn't work......right?"

"Hehheh! Yeah." Razor nodded.

"But you can fix it all and make it better." T-Bone said with certainty rather than asked, a smirk on his face.

"Bingo." Razor smirked back then made a sweeping gesture to the back of their workshop.

Feral had given them a small compartment off the main hanger and landing strip to keep their jet, and remaining vehicles in.

"You've been pretty much out of commission for weeks pal. I just kept working." He said, walking toward a huge tarp draped object.

"I just bet you have." T-Bone grunted, fidgeting with his arm.

Grinning at his partner, Razor reached up and grabbed the edge of the tarp. After ten or so hard pulls, the tarp finally fell off the new jet. There sat the bigger sized Turbokat. She was painted black with dark green trim. Her nose was shaped and angled differently then T-Bone remembered and the wings were presently set, slightly back. Razor had not returned them to their flight position as this hanger was smaller than their old one and its clearance was extremely low and barely accommodated it.

"She looks good." T-Bone said admiringly as he walked around the nose of the jet reaching up his left paw to touch the metal.

"She'll fly like a dream too." Razor said proudly as he motioned his partner over to the side of the hangar. "Check these out." He pulled a tarp off three engines that lay along the far wall. "Felina nailed these for us."

"Those are two models up from the engines we're currently using." T-Bone said excitedly, eyes lighting up. "I need to get that fem flowers or something." He frowned in concern a moment later and pointed a gloved metal paw toward the jet. "Geez, buddy, is she going to be able to handle the power output?"

"Yes Felina and I have been working on the refit." Razor nodded "It's gonna be good to have you back in the saddle again, buddy. I can't do this without you."

"I missed you too, braniac." T-Bone said, grinning happily. "Let me do something first, though." He said, moving to Razor's desk and pulling the glovatrix off, laying it on the desk before pulling the sleeve the Professor gave him from a pocket and pulling it on over his metal paw and arm. Razor was eyeing him curiously when T-Bone looked up again. "Don't want to scratch your paint."

"Good idea since with you it's bound to happen." Razor snorted good naturedly.

T-Bone just snorted back and grabbed an impact drill. "Ok, where do you want to start."

Before Razor could respond, the radio attached to his shoulder suddenly signaled.

Frowning, Razor answered, "This is Razor."

"Sub Commander Razor, we need to know if you need the old parts in hangar bay two tossed or kept?" A dispatcher asked.

"Keep them for at least a minimum of two weeks. We're beginning the refit of the Turbokat engines tonight." He told them.

"Roger, Commander."

"Commander?" T-Bone blurted in shock.

"A lot's happened while you've been out of commission for the past five months, buddy. Surprised Felina didn't tell you." Razor said quietly

"I didn't ask much and most of the time I was too out of it to have heard the answer anyway." T-Bone muttered, not looking at his partner but at the jet. He hopped into the open bombay door then looked around.

Razor joined him and explained what had been happening. "Feral made me and you a sub commander. There are eight sub commanders who are in charge of units made up of enforcers, civilians, city officials, and us. Felina is a sub commander as well."

"But I wasn't here! Why would he make me a sub commander too?" T-Bone asked as he studied the interior of his beloved jet.

"I told Feral I wouldn't accept the position unless you were one as well. I just forgot to mention it to you the last time we spoke." Razor said matter-of-factly as he looked down at his glovatrix and did some calculations.

"So we're enforcers again......great!" T-Bone said sarcastically.

"Well, not exactly, buddy. They follow us......we don't follow them." Razor smirked. "You might say, Feral and I came to an understanding. We have a bit of authority in this place now." Razor explained.

"What kind of authority?" T-Bone asked turning to face his friend.

"We can get things we need and get things done in the field. If we determine the situation is too dangerous we have the right to call a retreat. We're all in this together so we have to work together but they won't get in our way and we won't get in theirs." His partner elaborated.

T-Bone shook his head in amazement. "Sounds like a dream and I like it." He turned back to the walls of the bombay and nodded at the hatch panel. "This panel needs to go."

Razor moved forward and studied the panel. It was rusted on the seal and locking hinges. "Yeah, you're right. Go ahead and unbolt the left side. I think we can sand blast the rust and salvage most of it." He determined, pulling the hinge down. "I'll ask one of the supply kats if he's got a new hinge around they can give us that's not in too bad a shape."

"Sounds good."

"I'll have Ms. Briggs bring us some food too."

"Been spending a lot of time with Callie huh?" T-Bone asked casually. Razor didn't say anything except to give him a small nod and to laugh a bit. "Kiss her yet?"

Razor turned, giving T-Bone an incredulous look. "I can not believe you said that."

"Why?!" T-Bone laughed. "Have you?"

Razor grabbed a few tools, jumped back out of the bombay and walked around the front of the jet not looking at T-Bone who had leaned down and was peering out the bombay door at him. Sighing to himself, Razor gave a sharp nod without turning around.

"You sly tom….Does she know who you are?" T-Bone jumped down from the bombay, suddenly, gossip being better than work at the moment.

Razor was working on the opposite side of the jet but T-Bone walked around to his side and demanded, "Well?"

"That's my business T-Bone." Razor said keeping as calm as possible and reaching up to test a few wires from the side electrical hatch.

"Uh huh…then why is there a goofy as shit grin on your face when I say Callie." T-Bone said lazily.

Razor looked down shyly and smiled to himself, "She knows my name is Jake…that's it though, she has not seen me without my mask." He looked up at his friend. "No full disclosure yet…not like Felina."

"Don't trust her?" T-Bone asked, folding his arms across his chest.

"No, nothing like that…it's …just not the right time, T-Bone." Razor said, shrugging. "I have a lot of work…I don't need her to be too worried about me."

"Does she love you?" T-Bone asked more seriously, looking down at his feet, shuffling his foot a bit.

"Yes." Razor said succinctly keeping an eye on his readings. He sounded very annoyed by the questioning.

"Then she's worried about you anyway." T-Bone said, patting his smaller partner's shoulder. "Just a bit of advice buddy…life is too short…tell her." He warned then walked back to the rear of the jet, Razor's eyes followed him thoughtfully.

He mulled his friend's words over in his mind a moment longer. He bite his lip as he realized his friend was right. No amount of planning, prearranging, or hope that things would change and be better for them all was a good reason to withhold telling Callie who he was and making time for the both of them. T-Bone was right, cease the moment because tomorrow might never come except for regrets for what might have been.

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Outside the entrance to the hidden enforcer base, two enforcers, a yellow tom and a white she kat, were on guard. After passing a jeep through the entrance, something caught the she-kat's eye.

"Jace, did you see that?" She asked anxiously, searching the sky where she'd thought she'd seen a flicker of movement.

"See what?" He asked, looking quickly around as well. Seeing nothing he frowned at her in annoyance. "You're getting paranoid."

"Our city is dragon infested and you're calling me paranoid?" She snarled at him when she spotted a blur moved through her peripheral vision. "There!" She cried, turning but again there was nothing. She hissed in frustration.

The tom snorted in disgust, "Ok, that does it!" He crossed over the driveway and grabbed her arm then turned on his heel, he began to drag her back inside. "You are going to...Ahhhh....." He screamed as talons snatched him into the air. His grip on the she kat was broken and she was dropped to the ground.

She screamed for help as she tried to life her rifle from her prone position but it was too late. The dragon and the tom were gone without a trace.

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Alarms went off. Felina, who had been near the front entrance, heard the enforcer scream, hit the alarm with her fist then ran out to snatch her inside. As she dragged her fellow officer to safety, she bellowed orders.

"ALL SECURITY INSIDE NOW! WE'RE ON IMMEDIATE LOCK DOWN!" The word was passed on quickly and enforcers were scrambling to seal the entryways.

As she passed the shocked she kat over to others, a choked voice said, "It was Red!" Felina glanced at the female guard as she was led away but nodded to let her know she had heard her.

In the west wing hangar, T-Bone was drilling off the bomb-bay door while Razor held it when he heard the alarm. He tapped his partner's shoulder. T-Bone shut the drill and listened to the shouted command to lock down.

Setting his drill down, he followed Razor who had already jumped to the floor and was racing to his office for his glovatrix. He handed his partner his own then the two of them hurried to the secured door to the hangar.

"Must be uninvited guests. Got anything to make them unwelcome, Razor?" T-Bone asked as they hurried down the hall together.

"Oh yeah." Razor said "I've got new missles loaded with high potency sedatives. Should send that dragon sleepy bye real quick." He smirked. "Come on let's knock that thing out."

"Right behind you, buddy." T-Bone said as they came to another door that was open and into the main hangar where Felina was.

"Fel what's going on?" T-Bone asked her as they came up to her side.

"You shouldn't be here!" She snapped.

"Hey, if I don't get to tell you no then you don't get to tell me the same." He growled firmly, grabbing her left shoulder and squeezing it lovingly.

She sighed but capitulated and made for another section of the hangar. "Fine, whatever! Let's just get this done!"

A familiar voice roared, "FELINA! NO!" Feral had just walked into the hangar and spotted the three making their way across the floor.

Beside him another voice snorted a derisive remark. "Will you just stop that!" Callie said flatly, walking up behind the powerful tom. "You know the three of them make an efficient team and have a better chance of succeeding."

Feral grunted his displeasure but subsided. Callie was right and he knew when he was in an untenable position which was far too often lately. He offered a prayer his niece would survive intact and come back to him safely.

Razor smirked and pulled ahead of the group to smash a paw against the small door button. Inside the room were three bikes, two of which were the tandem and single cyclotrons plus a Honda cycle.

Felina reached her bike first and smirked at them as she jumped aboard and started the engine.

"Keep up with me guys!" Felina sang out as she maneuvered her bike out the door.

"Not a problem, Lt Feral." T-Bone called out to her then added, "Boy, do I love her."

"Shut up and drive lover boy." Razor snorted as he climbed on behind his partner. "You think your arm will be okay for this?" He asked softly.

"It's fine." T-Bone bit back a bit more sharply than he meant to. "Everything is fine." He reiterated as the bike roared to life. "Let's just hope the gloveatrix and my arm get along." T-Bone said quietly, wiggling his metal fingers experimentally and feeling the glovatrix mesh smoothly with it.

He was startled when he felt the glovatrix act like part of his arm. That's when he remembered Hackle had warned him the day before that he could now interface with machines. The cables running up his arms connected to small microchips that were installed behind his ear and up into his brain. He had complete control of his new extremity. It felt weird and he still had to learn the extent of his abilities and that would come when he tested them out.

'Well, now was as good a time as any.' He thought.

"Let's do this." T-Bone said pulling out and following Felina's path out of the hangar and onto the street. She was no where in sight when they reached the outdoors.

Suddenly over the radio came a chirp and a beep then Felina's voice. "Big Red picked off one of the guards, now he's heading into the inner city toward the bay."

"He's going back home." T-Bone growled.

"Something's wrong! Big Red's leading us into his territory." Razor said worriedly. "Lt Feral come back.....come back to the base now." He ordered as T-Bone halted the bike just a short distance from the base and stared off into the distance.

"Why?" She asked.

"He only took one guard, Felina. He's still hungry and is trying to lead us to him." T-Bone said sharply. "Come back to us so we can regroup and decide what to do."

"Roger! On my way ba..tzzz tzz T-Bone zzzt zztsss...." She replied but her voice was being buried in static.

"Razor?" He demanded in concern.

"I know! That's not good!" Razor acknowledged as he tried to fine tune the frequency without any luck. "It's not on our end."

"Contact the Commander! I'm going on!" T-Bone told Razor.

"Roger, buddy." His partner said quickly then switched frequencies. "This is Razor! …T-Bone and I are heading downtown in pursuit of Big Red. We have lost contact with Lt. Feral who was out ahead of us. Requesting ground support."

"Understood!" Came Commander Feral's reply. "We're on our way."

"Keep in mind Commander, this thing only picked off one of the hangar guards and then went back home…it's trying to draw us out…this might get ugly." Razor warned.

"It's been ugly for a year Razor…I'm not concerned." Feral said then the radio went silent.

T-Bone turned his head to look at his partner a moment, his neck popping slowly in sequence. "Problem is …I am." T-Bone said worriedly, searching the sky with a hint of desperation in his hidden eyes.