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Vanished, CH 1

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VANISHED

Chapter 1: Where the Hell are We?

Four a.m...

The early dawn hours are very quiet ones, only a small portion of the city's population was awake to witness the events unfolding that would plunge their lives into a living nightmare.

Around the city, Kats witnessed the world blink. Instead of a greenish sky with a yellowish-orange sun, their new world had a blazing yellow sun, an azure blue sky and a ring of mountains that surround them. The reactions to their altered circumstance varied:

...A patient's wife ran weeping in panic to the nurses desk, babbling about the sky having changed color.

...One of several firehouse crews still left in the city, gaped in shocked bewilderment at the sight of the new mountain range.

...A tired long distance truck driver was crossing the silent city heading for a grocery chain warehouse when the world blinked startling him into driving off the road and into a nearby storefront.

...An enforcer chopper patrol nearly flew his craft into the flight line he had been approaching when he got distracted by the sudden blink.

...A city transit bus T-boned an eighteen-wheeler when the traffic lights suddenly ceased to function.

...Hydrants all over the city began spouting into the air then shutting off moments later when the water in the pipes ran out. It wouldn't be long before no water ran through any of the pipes throughout the city.

...Power and phone lines went down instantly except where there were emergency generators.

...Enforcer patrols found themselves momentarily cut off until the back up generators came on line at Enforcer Headquarters. They had many other problems besides lack of communication such as accidents due to non-functioning traffic lights, reaction to the blink in their reality causing panic by the witnesses and the loss of their armory.

Only ten minutes after the incident occurred, the enforcer's dispatcher comm board lit up like a Christmas tree as patrols and flying squadrons tried to report what had happened and demanded to know what was going on, all at the same time.

More worrisome to the enforcers was the fact that in less than two hours the rest of the city's Katizens would be rising to start their day. The katizens would discover no power, phone, or water, adding their panic to those who had witnessed the event and beginning a mass hysteria that could lead to mob behavior. Unfortunately, without radio or TV there would be no way to tell them to stay calm and remain home. Things were about to get ugly.

The officer in command at this hour was Major Preston. He'd witnessed the world's sudden alteration from his office three floors below the flight line. it shook him hard but he knew he had to remain calm. When the emergency power came back on, he immediately began to find out what was going on. When he received the reports from his outside patrols, he knew something had to be done and quickly before chaos took over the whole city and mob violence broke out due to fear.

He ordered his officers to do their best to soothe the populace and to get them to go home and/or stay inside until the government could assess the problem and find some solutions to get them through this. He also ordered the chopper patrols to report in. It was a shock to learn only thirty choppers remained of a patrol of fifty.

He ordered them to return and refuel. He had a feeling Commander Feral would need them as soon as he was notified about the insipid disaster. Once he'd done what he could to control things, he had the dispatcher signal the Commander's radio.

In a dark apartment some two miles from Enforcer Headquarters, a radio toned urgently. Grumbling sleepily, a large paw reached out and grabbed for the radio on his night stand, barking into it.

"Feral!"

"Sir, Major Preston. Please look out your window now!"

Feral blinked at the radio in consternation but did as asked, rolling out of his bed and going to his balcony window to stare out. Not believing what he was seeing, he hurriedly opened the balcony door and stepped out into the morning light and gaped.

"Kat's alive! What the hell happened?" He finally managed to say into the radio.

"We don't know sir but you better come to headquarters asap but watch out, the traffic lights are all out causing many accidents and those that witnessed what happened are panicking in the streets," Preston reported grimly.

"Send a chopper for me!" Feral barked then put down the radio and went to hurriedly dress.

He was waiting on his roof by the time a chopper arrived to pick him up. He put on a helmet and engaged the radio. "Get me Preston!" He ordered.

"Sir!" Preston said almost immediately.

"Tell me what's happened and what you're doing about it so we don't waste more time," Feral demanded grimly.

On the flight to headquarters, Feral listened as Major Preston told him about how the city simply appeared in a new place, about the power, water and communications failures, and what steps he had taken so far.

"Excellent work, Preston. We're landing now. See you in my office in a few minutes," Feral said tightly as he prepared to leave the chopper the moment it touched down.

As he strode across the flight line and headed for his office, his mind was working furiously. Megakat City had been ripped from its place on Aristal at four a.m and deposited here, wherever here was, by someone or something unknown. No way was this the work of any of their omegas. Not even Dark Kat could change the sky. The Pastmaster was able to send them into the past but the celestial heavens still remained the same even if their locale hadn't.

According to Preston, the sky just sort of blinked and became something alien. Feral shuddered. This was worse than any nightmare he'd ever had or could even imagine. He noted the scared looks on his officers faces as he hurriedly raced by making for the stairs. He ran down them and shoved the stair door open to the hall of his office floor. Passing his secretary's desk, he pushed open the huge door to his office and was greeted by Preston and only a handful of squadron leaders...both ground and air.

He eyed Preston questioningly.

"These are all that remain of our top officers, sir. The rest we're assuming were left back home. The same holds true of our choppers. We have thirty left from the swing shift," Preston said grimly. "I haven't had time yet to do a complete head count of our ground units or inventory check of what's left in our building. We do know everything below the lobby floor is gone so no armory."

Feral winced at that information. "Alright, here's what we need to do immediately besides what you've already set in motion. Get an accurate count of troops and equipment, in and out of the building done as fast as possible; send out all our ground units throughout the city using bull horns to add to the ones you've already sent out to calm the masses; have the communications center get with any broadcasting company left and have them send their equipment and techs here to use our radio system to set up a broadcast...that has utmost priority after the troop deployment. Next I want all the fighter crews sent out to all our borders to determine how much of our city is here, what the boundaries are and what if anything is beyond those mountains ringing us; lastly, have the ground troops be given the addresses for the city government officials and have them brought here. Leave one chopper here to do messenger and passenger drops. That's enough for you to get started on now. Go to it!" He ordered.

Major Preston and the squadron leaders nodded briskly, relieved to have something to do during this terrible time. They turned and left at a near run. Sgt Fallon stayed to see what the Commander wanted next.

Feral sighed and went to his desk. As urgent as everything was to get done, he had to have a plan laid out and none of their emergency ones would work in this instance. He quickly wrote up what he already ordered then the things he felt still needed to be done. Twenty minutes later, he had most of what he thought needed done down on paper.

In another part of the awakening city, Deputy Mayor Briggs had her beauty sleep rudely interrupted. She didn't normally get up until around eight a.m. but a loud commotion outside her apartment woke her. She sat up and listened in confusion. She heard many anxious voices coming through her wall.

Concerned, she quickly got up, went to the bathroom, then went to dress in a sweat suit so she could investigate the gradually increasing racket outside her apartment.

She opened her door to a silent hallway. Going to the elevator, she pressed the button but it didn't light up. Shaking her head, she headed to the stairwell. Opening the door, she was hit with loud, anxious voices going away from her. Hurrying, she ran down the stairs until she nearly caught up with the voices. The ones ahead of her spilled out into the lobby with her on their tails. Everyone halted at the doors and stared out in shock.

Outside was chaos as katizens realized they were not the only ones without power, water, or phones. People stood everywhere talking to each other in excited voices, asking questions of each other. Many had gone outside and were staring at the sky with shocked looks.

Confused, Callie went to the door herself and stared. Her mouth dropped at the changed world. Before she could begin to get her wits about her, she heard a megaphone shouting something. It grew louder as it got closer and soon they could see a patrol car slowly driving down the nearly empty street and bellowing a message.

"The city is in a state of emergency. Please go back in your homes! Do not go anywhere! For your safety please stay in your homes! Do not report for work!" The voice repeated its message as it drove closer and began to pass her apartment building.

Callie dashed after them forcing them to stop.

"Go home ma'am. We need everyone to go home and wait until we can clear up this mess," the harried officer said making a shooing gesture at her.

"I'm Deputy Mayor Briggs and I..." She began to shout back.

"Ms. Briggs? Ma'am, Commander Feral said to find you and have you taken to Enforcer Headquarters," the officer interrupted her, relief plain on his face.

"Oh, okay...let's go then...," she said, starting to get in their car. But the officer stopped her.

"No ma'am! A chopper will come and get you. Go to the roof top. We have to continue warning the populace," he told her then began his message over the megaphone again as the driver moved off.

Shaking her head, Callie turned around to go back into her building where her neighbors were still milling around.

"Please, go back to your homes. I know you're afraid, so am I. We in the government will do all we can to get us out of this mess but we can only do that if you stay calm, so, please, return to your homes and wait there." she shouted to them.

They blinked at her with frightened eyes. Those that knew who she was told the others around them and were coaxing everyone to go home. Callie joined the mass migration back upstairs.

Sighing in relief and reassuring those around her, Callie finally made it back to her apartment without incident. Having no time to waste changing clothes, she spent only a moment using what meager water she had to wash her face and brush her hair before grabbing her briefcase and purse before heading to the roof for her ride.

A chopper arrived some minutes later and she was helped aboard. The flight was tense as the pilot flew back at nearly breakneck speed. He landed quickly, barely allowing her to get off before taking off again.

Sgt Fallon was there to greet her. His face was grim as he quickly hustled her down one flight of stairs and to Feral's office. Stepping inside she noted lots of coming and going of low ranking officers from Feral's desk where the huge tom was apparently gathering information. Off to one side of the Commander's huge office were a cluster of Kats milling nervously about. They were members of the city council. Not all of them were there, she noted, and Mayor Manx was conspicuously absent.

Before she could speak to any of them, Feral had finished giving out orders and had come up behind her.

"Ms. Briggs. I'm glad you're still here. You are the only authority of the government next to myself and these six council members that are left," Feral said grimly.

"Left? What do you mean left?" Callie asked getting more confused by the minute. "Commander, I noted the sky change and the fact we have a mountain range around us. What else is going on?"

"The world blinked, Ms. Briggs...that's the only way anyone's been able to describe what happened. I, like you, didn't witness it but the result is there before us. All I've been able to ascertain since I got here is that our city simply vanished from our world to somewhere else and no one knows how or why. I've sent out my jets to see how much of our city is here and what is beyond those mountains. Our city was apparently scraped off its former ground leaving behind all the basements and subsequently all power and water connections. Only those buildings with back up generators have any power and that's going to have to be husbanded carefully. In addition, I'm having my communications center cobble together a makeshift broadcasting system with the help of those TV stations still here so you and I can try and reach the masses to calm them and get them to stay home," he told her grimly.

"Ahh, that's why you have your troops going around with megaphones," Callie interrupted, nodding her understanding.

"Exactly. We're trying to hurry with the broadcast system before the rest of the population begins to waken for the day and we're fast running out of time. I'm also having my second in command try to obtain a full accounting of how much of a force I still have left and what equipment. Our armory is gone but Pumadyne is with us so we may be okay on weapons. I'm praying that we can hold off a full scale panic before I've finished tallying what we do have but I don't hold out much hope of getting it all done before that happens," he said worriedly.

Seeing the stress and very real fear in Feral's eyes, caused Callie's heart to tighten with sympathy. She may not have liked the Chief Enforcer but when the going got really bad, he didn't fall apart and did what was needed no matter how scared he was. She could do no less in the face of his own bravery.

She reached out and touched his arm in a sign of solidarity. "You've done a lot in such a short time, Commander. It will have to be enough until we have all the information we need to do something about this...if that's even possible. You're right, calming the masses is a first priority. I'll get started on writing a speech to try and accomplish that. I know you've already managed to do a plan of action...brief us on it please," she said firmly.

Feral stared at her with new eyes. He'd known Briggs for a strong willed she-kat and was greatly pleased she wasn't arguing with him. Instead she was preparing to stand by his side and do what needed to be done to keep the city safe. It felt good not having to shoulder the entire burden all by himself.

Addressing the council as well as Briggs, he said, "Our first priority is, of course, to prevent a riot from starting then we have to find water and food as well as find a way to generate some kind of power. Perhaps we should gather the katizens at some large locations where we can not only keep them calm, but provide food and water," he paused as his thoughts raced ahead at how he was going to accomplish this.

"I see where you're going!" Callie interrupted excitedly. "We have all the katizens bring bedding, personal care items, and all the food and water they possess and set up a mini town of tents in say...the Megakat Coliseum, use schools, warehouses, and any other large area to congregate the people. We place a mixed squad of emergency personal, enforcers, and other leaders in charge of each group...give them a radio to communicate with the enforcer dispatch, designating one frequency for them to use, and we might be able to not only prevent a riot from starting but keep everyone fed and cared for."

Feral nodded his head in agreement, pleased at her quick wits and planning abilities. "That's exactly what I was heading for. Add that into your speech and I'll work at setting up teams. This is going to take a long time...perhaps several days. Our biggest concern will still be finding water. As soon as my jets return with word of what's beyond the mountain range, we'll know if there's any source of water around. I'll then send choppers out to collect samples for testing."

"So our biggest priority right this minute is to prevent the katizens from rioting then we can investigate what is going on around us," Callie said, summing up their needs. The council members could only nod in agreement since they were far too scared to say or do anything. They could only pray the Chief Enforcer and Deputy Mayor could save them.

Though they had their plans made and that definitely helped, it didn't ease the sick feeling both Feral and Briggs were feeling. They both were frightened to death. Feral especially felt out of his depth here. Nothing in his training had prepared him for handling what essentially was an Armageddon situation. However, there was no one else to take the burden. He and Briggs would have to do the best they could.

"By his absence, I'm assuming the Mayor hasn't been found?" Callie asked breaking into his gloomy thoughts.

"No. I'm guessing if his mansion isn't here, he was left behind. Unfortunately, I just don't know yet," Feral said, shrugging his shoulders.

"What about the SWAT Kats?" Callie asked, next.

Feral scowled but shrugged again, "I'd be glad to see them right now but there's been no sign. I just don't know if they came with us to wherever this is."

"We're here!" A gruff voice suddenly spoke from behind them.

Feral and Callie whirled around to stare at a very grim pair standing near Feral's desk. Callie's heart lifted only to plummet seconds later by what Razor said next.

"Unfortunately, that won't help you any since our hangar is back wherever home is now."

"What?" Feral asked in confusion.

"As you reported, there are no basements...that means our hangar, which is underground, is now back home and so are our weapons, cyclotrons, and the Turbokat," Razor clarified, his shoulders stiff with helpless anger.

Just an hour and half earlier, Jake who made it a habit to rise early, had been standing near the window in his bedroom when the world blinked. Startled he continued to stare and saw their city was no longer where it should be. He had immediately gone to wake Chance up. They quickly decided they should check the city and that's when they learned things were worse than they dreamed when they found their hangar was gone.

The loss of the hangar had been the most crushing blow on top of knowing they weren't on their world any longer.

Jake could, given time, come up with some temporary ones from the salvage that had come with them but realizing things could be dire in the city they decided to just come and see what they could do.

Chance had been shocked when Jake suggested they join forces with Feral.

"Look, Chance! We're not home! We don't even know how many of our people are here much less how much city is here but I have no doubt we are not on our world! Feral, if he's here with us, is going to be swamped trying to control a panicking population that has no water, communications or power. I'm willing to bet there's already a frightened mob swirling in the city streets right now," Jake said angrily.

Chance's shoulders slumped. "Okay, you're right. If we are away from home like you think then we need to band together to survive and find a way to get back. So how do we go see Feral? We don't have any uniforms, weapons, jet, nothing," he said in frustration.

"I'll make us some uniforms right now, there's weapons in the tow truck, and we'll just have to use Feral's jets and weapons," Jake said with a shrug as he got busy making them new outfits.

Chance could only shake his head but helped his friend sew. Dressed in their new flight suits, they rode out of the yard using the boosters in the tow truck to get to the city heart as fast as they could.

On their way to Enforcer Headquarters they ran into the very thing Razor had predicted. Badly shaken and afraid katizens were milling around in the streets, signs of collisions were everywhere. They were forced to pause at a very large congregation of Katizens. T-Bone and Razor climbed up on the roof of their truck and shouted at the crowd to please go home and wait. They would do everything they could to help but they needed the people to go home and stay out of the streets. The fact the SWAT Kats were there seemed to ease the crowd somewhat and to the single enforcer unit that had been trying to get them to disperse for some time, there was relief at their assistance. When the crowd thinned enough, the pair were finally able to continue on their way, reaching the enforcer building an hour later. The place was in a state of controlled chaos. An officer that had spotted the SWAT Kats as they crossed the lobby simply instructed the pair to go up to Feral's office.

It had been an exhausting climb to Feral's fifteenth floor office but they finally arrived in time to hear Feral's report to Callie. They were both pleased and relieved the Commander and Callie were here. It would have been so much worse having to deal with just a second in command and Manx in this kind of situation. Whatever they might feel about the stiff-necked tom, there was no doubt he was a good Kat to have in an emergency.

When Callie began to ask about them, T-Bone thought it was time to speak up. He just wished his news wasn't going to add to their grim prospects.

Callie gaped at them in shocked dismay. Without their jet, they couldn't help search though they could use one of Feral's jets, those didn't have the same capabilities of the Turbokat but there was no point in whining about it now.

Feral groaned in equal dismay. Though he really didn't like their interference, this time he truly wished these two were battle ready because he needed every trained soldier he could find. They may not be good at taking orders but they were an excellent fighting team and their presence would help calm the people. But without their jet and specialized weapons, their special skills were halved. This was terrible news.

Shaking his head, Feral sighed. "Okay, that's definitely not good news but there's really nothing we can do about it. Our armory is also gone since it was underground too."

T-Bone scowled angrily. "Crud! Well that sucks!"

"It's not completely bad news, Pumadyne is here with us," Feral added.

"Ah, well that helps a little. Okay, you tell us what you want us to do and we'll help you do it!" Razor said stoutly.

"I think being in the broadcast with Feral and I will go a long way toward making people believe we can fix things and keep them safe. Even if we are not being completely truthful about it," Callie sighed, giving a wane but brave smile to all.

Feral snorted but was forced to agree with that assessment.
^-^
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LoboRojo1022's avatar
Very very good piece of writing my friend. I like the amount of detail you put into this.