[FFML] [Ranma/Marvel] Avenging Act 2 Chapter 9

[DB Sommer]

Avenging
Act III
The Animal Farm
Chapter 9


Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Seated at her receptionist’s desk, Akane Tendou smiled dreamily as the 
radio played a sad love song in the background. It was unfortunate she 
couldn’t have attended the autograph session with the other Avengers, 
but she did have her job, and any chance to be with Dr. Tofu was always 
time well spent. True, their roles were solely his being a doctor with 
the patients and she only his faithful nurse/receptionist, but it still 
counted as time together in her book.

A pity things hadn’t exactly been moving forward on the Tofu front, but 
neither had Akane lost any ground. She had confidence now that someday 
something fateful would happen that would enable him to see her for the 
wonderful person she was. Then they would begin dating and have a 
courtship that would be like out of some romance novel which would end 
in marriage.

As her fantasy with Tofu began, she also considered the hunky and heroic 
Captain Japan as well. Truly he was a magnificent specimen for a mortal, 
and his character and perseverance were that of a true warrior. No doubt 
under his mask was an equally heroic countenance. And his stamina was 
not in doubt from having seen him in action. He would make for a 
desirable partner as well.

But who to choose? Bah, why not take both? After all, she was a true 
woman who had been forced to keep her desires in check for far too long. 
Come to think of it, there was Ranma, too, who was nearly as hunky as 
the Captain and a nice sort, not at all like the boys from her school. 
And a relationship with him would answer the need for family honor. 
Three were not too much. In fact, that was probably the bare minimum 
necessary to sate her healthy appetite. The three of them would surely 
be entertaining in bed—

“Akane, why are you drooling?”

The question snapped Akane back to the world of the living. It was Dr. 
Tofu, who was seeing his last patient out. Akane felt her face redden as 
she recalled the totally perverted thoughts she had been having. Three 
guys? And only one of them Dr. Tofu? What had she been thinking? 
Actually she remembered what she had been thinking, which was what made 
it so bad.

“Ah, it was…”Akane tried frantically to come up with some rational 
explanation. Perhaps accidently giving herself an overdose of Novocain 
which had deadened her jaw and she didn’t know she was drooling?

Akane was saved from coming up with some lame excuse when the music 
stopped and an announcer’s voice declared, “This breaking news. The 
super hero group that has come under fire recently, the Avengers, was 
attacked during an autograph session at a local store. Reports are that 
they lost to a group of unknown canine super villains. Unconfirmed 
sources tell us that a number of the heroes were injured, while one of 
the Avengers was taken hostage as the super villains fled the scene.”

Both Tofu and Akane stared in horror at the announcement. Tofu was the 
first to collect himself. “Ka… I should go help the injured. Could you 
close up here?” He was already collecting medical supplies as he asked.

Akane breathed a secret sigh of relief as she was saved from coming up 
with a lame excuse for the second time in a minute. Dr. Tofu’s departure 
meant she could transform into Thor. The only question was where to go? 
There was little she could do for the injured, and if the abducted one 
was Captain Japan, well it was a chance for her to impress the hunky 
hero. Maybe in gratitude he would kiss her the way Hawkeye had when they 
were under the Mandarin’s fortress. The archer was quite the kisser, 
though Akane’s preferences were toward the beefier Captain. Yes, she 
would fly out and rescue her comrade from the clutches of the foul beasts.

After all, kicking ass was what a warrior was born to do.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

The Avengers priority signal beeped. Kodachi Kunou cursed at the 
interruption. After two near fanatical weeks of theorizing and 
experimentation she had determined that a refractory coating would be 
the best means of preventing her armor from being controlled by any 
outside signals, like Bullseye had done. But even with the method 
decided Kodachi still had to test the composition, thickness, and a host 
of other variables to maximize the protective properties. That took 
time, which was why she had skipped out on the autograph session. 
Distractions she did not need. She swore if this ‘priority’ was from the 
Hulk again because he was hungry and couldn’t locate the kitchen she’d 
make fuchsia the ‘official’ color of the Avengers and force him to wear 
pants in that shade.

Her attitude changed when she saw it was an automatically generated 
signal by her ‘heads up’ program. It monitored all commercial 
information systems, like television, radio and, the internet, and red 
flagged any that might have a significant impact on the Avengers.

Punching up the alert, it informed her of the attack, and more 
importantly, that a member of her team had been abducted. What if it had 
been her beloved Captain Japan that had been captured? If she moved fast 
she could swoop down and rescue him single-handedly. It would be the 
perfect segue to invite him out to dinner at the most expensive 
restaurant in Japan. But how would she eat through the slit in her 
helmet? Maybe it was time to inform the Captain of her true identity. It 
would be a sign of trust. And then he could reveal his identity to her. 
It would be ‘their little secret’. Oh, it was a wonderful plan.

“Don’t’ worry, Captain-sama, I am coming to save you. Ohhohohohohoho!”

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The vehicle was a military transport truck with the canvas back torn 
away, allowing anyone to see what was happening in the bed, though few 
would believe their eyes. Nearly two dozen humanoid felines crowded in 
the rear of the vehicle, a half dozen of them trying their best to hold 
down one of their number, a female with purple fur.

The girl writhed with the best of her abilities, snarling, “Let Tigra 
go!” She got a solid kick to the face of one of the cats, knocking him 
far enough away he had to grab onto the side of the vehicle to keep from 
falling. However another was quick to take his place on her limb.

One of the cats, a male with black fur and a pair of white circles 
around his eyes, crawled over to the cab and looked in. “Cougar, sir, 
The Tigra is continuing to fight us.”

The brown-furred male, much larger than the others, said, “She’s 
confused, for some reason, you idiot! It’s why she didn’t come to us in 
the first place. Now hold on to her, but don’t harm one follicle of fur, 
or I’ll gut you myself.”

With her enhanced hearing, Tigra stopped fighting for a second. “No 
harm?” A wicked smile spread across her face, nearly feral in nature.

Having gone limp, her captors loosened their holds ever so slightly. 
Their mistake as Tigra became active again, ripping across the face of 
one of the Phantom Cats, her claws biting deeply. However, instead of 
blood a glow came from the tear, which then healed itself before her eyes.

The one that had been scratched said, “Hey, I healed from her claws.”

“The Tigra’s powers differ from ours,” Cougar explained.

A third phantom cat said, “You got that right. She’s way stronger than 
any of us, except for the Balkatar,” she added in a meaningful way to 
the leader of the Phantom Cats on Earth.” The sycophant took a fist to 
her face courtesy of Tigra, for the trouble.

“We’re almost there,” Cougar said sympathetically to the girl, then to 
the driver ordered, “Toonces, drive faster.” He didn’t wait for the 
vehicle to speed up before turning to another Phantom Cat not currently 
engaged with wresting Tigra to the ground. “Skit, go ahead and tell the 
others at the launch base to initiate the plan. I want that shuttle 
fired up and ready to go when we arrive.”

Skit nodded, pulling out a cell phone and dialing a number. A second 
later he turned into light as he put one hand into the digital screen on 
the phone, disappearing from sight.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

There really could be a silver lining in a cloud, Ryouga Hibiki decided. 
His original intention had been to attend the autograph session with the 
rest of the Avenger. True, he wasn’t in his Hulk form, but he had a way 
around it: he had poked two eyeholes in one of his bandannas so he could 
tie it around his face. No one would recognize him for sure like that. 
It was the perfect disguise.

But Ryouga ended up getting lost instead. More like ‘as usual’. However, 
this was not cause for depression as was usually the case. He had ended 
up at a launch base where they were going to shuttle a satellite into 
orbit. Ryouga had always been fascinated by outer space. Many hours of 
his youth had been taken up pretending he was an astronaut-- and not 
getting lost in space, (although maybe there was an idea for a TV 
series, or even a movie, behind that one). So as far as Ryouga was 
concerned randomly walking into a situation where he could watch a real 
live space launch was a dream come true.

As he stood next to the chain fence surrounding the base, he was vaguely 
aware of an increasingly loud rumble coming from behind him. He turned 
and saw a truck with a cat person behind the wheel boring down on him.

Ryouga only had enough time to yell, “Ahhhh!” and have his blood 
pressure shoot through the roof before the truck ran him over.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Cougar saw the shuttle on the launch pad moving into position for the 
lift off. Yes! Skit and the others had seized control of the key areas 
of the base necessary to hijack the shuttle, though it wasn’t much of a 
hijacking since its destination remained the same: only its cargo would 
be different, and that was primarily in the form of passengers. That was 
all that was necessary since they had initiated this plan months ago. 
Everything was in place. It was a just a question of timing now.

Next to him, Toonces suddenly screeched at the top of his lungs.

“What the hell’s wrong? Why are you screaming like a little kitten?”

Fur standing on end, Toonces snapped, “You’d scream like that too if an 
angry Hulk was in your review mirror!”

Cougar turned and saw indeed it was the Hulk running toward their 
vehicle. Worse, he was quickly catching up. Well, their luck had been 
exceptional lately, what with the appearance of the Tigra, killing Black 
Cat, and having the Avengers and the thrice damned Geobreeders take each 
other out while snatching the Tigra out from under their collective 
unconscious noses. It didn’t get any more convenient than that.

Cougar barked out, “Tai, Mackie, Greyeye, Shi and Raven, hold the Tigra 
down. The rest of you keep the Hulk from getting to the shuttle!”

Tigra heard that. Shuttle? That couldn’t be good. She struggled harder, 
but while she was indeed stronger than any of any single Phantom Cat she 
wasn’t stronger than five. And no matter how or where she scratched, 
they kept on healing.

She hated regeneraters. At least ones better than her.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

The Hulk had nearly caught up to the truck when over a dozen Phantom 
Cats sprang out from the back and leapt upon him. The jade goliath found 
himself buried under a fur pile that wouldn’t have felt all that bad had 
the phantom cats not been trying to claw him to shreds.

“Cat people attack Hulk! Bad kitties! Bad!” The Hulk flexed his muscles, 
hurling the Phantom Cats through the air until they were stopped by a 
variety of obstructions, such as walls, vehicles, the ground, and a host 
of other very solid objects.

One of the trucks was a maintenance vehicle with a number of pipes 
poking out the back. A Phantom Cat flew almost unerringly toward it and 
ended up impaled squarely through the chest by one of the protruding pipes.

The Hulk grimaced. “Hulk did not mean to kill bad cat person. Hulk, 
huh?” The Avenger watched as the Phantom Cat grabbed the bar sticking 
out of his chest and pulled himself forward until he was at the end, 
then fell forward and off the pipe. As he rose to his feet, the glowing 
spot where the hole had been disappeared. Other cats who had injuries, 
including scrapes, cuts, or even broken bones, healed in similar fashion.

The Hulk reconsidered things. “Hulk thinks something is strange. These 
are not normal cat people.”

The Phantom Cats hurled themselves at him again.

Xxxxxxxxx

Flying above, Iron Rose saw the Hulk being swarmed by the Phantom Cats. 
Great, she had hoped for Captain Japan and instead ended up with the 
child-like brute. Oh well, at least it hadn’t been that furry harridan, 
Tigra. She would have turned around and gone back home if that one had 
been the kidnap victim. Although she did wonder how a bunch of giant 
hairballs had managed to capture the muscle-bound oaf. Perhaps he had 
been in his easier to manage human form.

As Iron rose hovered overhead, trying to figure out the best way to 
assist her teammate (assuming he required assistance), she noticed one 
of the Phantom Cats staring right at her. It was very creepy, especially 
with his inhuman eyes. Maybe she’d hit him with a repulsor blast first.

Then he suddenly dissolved into a beam of energy which shot up at her 
armor. There was a flash of light as it struck her, yet she felt no 
impact, nor did her armor seem scorched of burnt.

And then her systems began refusing her commands.

“Not again!” Kodachi tried everything she could to regain control of the 
armor’s systems, but it was useless. Nothing responded, not even her 
inbuilt am/fm radio. It was like her armor had become sentient and gone 
on strike. Damn, damn, damn! It wasn’t fair! Another three or four days 
and this wouldn’t have been possible.

After several seconds, the armor began moving on its own. It was worse 
than with Bullseye. Then the armor had simply gone dead, now it was like 
she was a puppet.

“Get out!” Kodachi screamed as her armor flew down toward… oh no.

The Hulk saw only a black and gray blur as he was dive bombed by his 
teammate. Unlike the Phantom Cats, being hit by Iron Rose hurt a lot. He 
went flying nearly as far as the felines he had swatted away moments 
before.

The Hulk rose to his feet. “Why did Tin Can Girl—“ The rest of the 
interrogative was cut off by a full force repulsor beam to the face 
which once again knocked the Hulk on his big green behind.

“It’s not my fault!” Iron Rose shouted as a now very angry Hulk rose to 
his feet. “One of these damned felines got inside my armor and is 
controlling it!”

“Hulk thinks this is trick. Hulk thinks you are really robot making 
believe it’s Tin Can Girl. Hulk will smash to prove it!” And with that 
he leapt into the air.

Luckily for Iron Rose, the Phantom Cat inhabiting her armor was nearly 
as adept with it as her, and evaded the charge. Had the Hulk landed 
squarely, she doubted if even her armor could withstand his assault. 
Instead the armor circled around in mid-air, keeping distance between it 
and the emerald goliath as the repulsors charged up again in 
anticipation of a second shot.

This was turning into a really terrible day.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Thor flew through the air toward the truck that was now stationed near 
the shuttle that was preparing for launch. Memories of nearly being 
flashfried by the Mandarin’s own missile launch made her wince. Still, 
it was obvious these felines were up to no good (cat people never were, 
as evidenced by Tigra’s sluttish demeanor). Whether they were saboteurs 
or hijackers, it made little difference to the Goddess of Thunder. There 
was combat to be had, and the furry tramp would owe Thor one for pulling 
her enlarged bottom out of the fire.

One of the Phantom Cats spotted Thor as she landed before the group 
emerging from the vehicle. “Incoming!”

A cat larger than the others, undoubtedly the leader, pulled in front of 
the group. “Take the Tigra on board. I shall deal with this one.”

While on one level allowing them to shoot Tigra into deep space was 
satisfying, she deserved a better fate, such as a full body shave. 
Besides, allowing one’s comrades to be abducted to far off lands under 
one’s nose looked bad.

Thor held up her hammer in warning. “Base villains. Unhand the furry 
wench and yield yourselves to the proper authorities, lest thou suffer 
the wrath of Thor!”

Cougar launched himself at her. Cats did have a tendency to pounce on 
prey, Thor noted. It mattered little. She would strike him from the 
skies before he had a chance to lay a single claw upon her.

Thor threw Mjolnir right at Cougar. The hammer was on target as it 
headed for the feline’s chest. He made no move to evade the weapon, 
rather drawing both arms back, as though he would be the one unleashing 
the blow. Truly he was an arrogant creature.

And then the hammer sailed through his chest, as though he were nothing 
more than a ghost.

Thor was so shocked that she left herself wide open as he brought his 
fists forward. She saw his entire forearms were sheathed in a yellow 
nimbus of crackling energy, and that some sort of mechanical bracers 
with a number of open wires was producing it. Acrid smoke poured from 
them and sparks danced along the edges.

And then both fists smashed into Thor’s face, releasing an explosion of 
energy that could be felt hundreds of meters away. There was enough 
force to render even the goddess unconscious.

Finally succeeding in immobilizing Tigra with several lengths of thick 
cable, the Phantom Cats paused as their leader disappeared in the 
ensuing explosion. They were tense until the light died and Cougar 
emerged, melted slags of metal the only sign of the Null Bands that he 
had been wearing. Fur and skin had been scorched from his body deep 
enough that bone was visible in some places on his forearms. Like all 
wounds inflicted by conventional means upon their race, Cougar’s healed 
before everyone’s eyes.

He said, “Let’s get on this shuttle. We have a planet to scourge.”

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Iron Rose was becoming frantic. Losing control was so horrible she would 
almost prefer the Hulk catch her and peel the armor from her body. Maybe 
she’d be dead, but at least she wouldn’t be a marionette dancing on the 
end of some over-intelligent animal’s strings.

The Hulk had leapt up once more and nearly caught her this time. His 
leaps were becoming faster, almost too fast to be evaded. He must be 
really getting angry if his strength was increasing so much her jets 
were slower than his jumps.

The searchlight concealed in her chest flashed out, blinding the Hulk 
momentarily. Readings indicated the Cat was shunting one hundred percent 
of the power into her repulsors. He was going for an all or nothing 
shot. That much power, and even the Hulk might be knocked out. Or worse. 
Her repulsors were powerful, and even she didn’t know what kind of 
damage such a blast would do to her simple minded teammate.

Suddenly there was a flash of light from the ground and sparks danced 
along the entirety of her armor. There was an inhuman cry, like some 
soul was being sent to hell via a paper shredder, that came from the 
metal surrounding her itself.

Then Kodachi suddenly found herself in complete control of the armor again.

“Thank goodn—“

The rest of the sentiment was lost as the Hulk finally connected on one 
of his leaps. His fist struck Iron Rose squarely in the body, sending 
her flying nearly a mile away.

The Hulk held his hand to his brow, keeping out the sun, as he watched 
her form dwindle out of sight, lost among the trees of a nearby forest. 
“Ha! Hulk has proven he is strongest one again. Maybe Tin Can Girl will 
thank Hulk for beating up robot impersonating her. Maybe she will give 
Hulk medal. Or beans.”

Patting his belly, his hunger was momentarily forgotten as a loud roar 
filled the air. The Hulk looked over to see a column of light come from 
the bottom of several large rockets as the launch took place.

“Ooooo! Pretty. Hulk likes space shots.” He watched the craft slowly 
lift into the blue sky. Maybe he would become astronaut instead of 
Avenger. He bet he was strong enough he could just throw the craft into 
space, and they wouldn’t need big rockets anymore.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The sounds of rockets propelling tons of metal in the air roused Thor 
from the depths of unconsciousness. She looked up to see the shuttle and 
its boosters lift off from the ground, slowly but surely going into the 
air. She was far enough away that the flames didn’t harm her, though 
with the wind any mere mortal would have been blown away.

“I say thee nay!” Thor spun Mjolnir around until it had sufficient force 
for her to take flight. Releasing it from the spin, she hurled it in the 
air, holding on to the pommel. She vowed to grab onto the vessel and 
wait until it got into orbit, then board it and force it earthward. She 
could withstand vacuum for an extended period of time, as proven when 
she and Iron Rose destroyed the Mandarin’s satellite. Now that she knew 
the Phantom Cats could become immaterial, she would be prepared for 
them. They could be dispatched quite easily.

Thor was catching up the shuttle, no more than fifty meters away from 
its gunmetal gray surface, when a pair of ground-to-air rockets slammed 
into her from behind, knocking her from the sky and causing her to crash 
to the ground below. Thor picked herself up, angrier than she had been 
in some time in being prevented not once, but twice, from stopping her 
foes. A quick look showed the shuttle had built up too much speed: she 
would never catch up to it.

Turning to confront the dishonorable fool that would strike her from 
behind, Thor found herself surrounded by a number of people in some sort 
of military garb. Rather than the JSDF insignia on their uniforms, they 
had a symbol with the acronym ‘Hound’.

A woman who carried herself as though she were in charge of the outfit 
gave a sharp, “Halt, Thor. You’re under arrest for attempting to 
interfere with a government space launch.”

Thor felt her temper fray. “Fools. Where were thou when the cat people 
took over the shuttle?”

A voice from behind the group said, “That’s already been taken to account.”

Everyone stopped pointing their weapons at Thor and stood at attention. 
A small, non-descript man in a business suit and a smile that reminded 
her far too much of her half-brother said, “Sorry about that. I’m afraid 
you’ve stumbled upon a secret government operation. Ordinarily I 
wouldn’t tell a civilian, but you’re not exactly an ordinary citizen, 
and I’ve had to use this year’s entire budget to fund the operation. I’d 
just as soon not have you destroy all my equipment since I’d never hear 
the end of it from the accountants. And then there’s all of my people 
whose insurance plans you’d end up activating. It would be a 
bureaucratic nightmare. So why don’t we go somewhere and, once I get the 
okay, I can inform you of everything hat happened?”

“One of mine comrades was aboard that craft,” Thor pointed out.

Irie considered that. “I understand she came out of nowhere and joined 
your team under suspicious conditions.”

“Aye, she did.”

“Perhaps I ought to brief you on exactly what Phantom Cats are, and why 
your comrade was likely a spy planted in your midst. Did she ever 
mention getting it on with someone named Balkatar?”

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Yuri Topolov, aka Mr. Comrade, aka the Gargoyle, looked in horror as his 
hijacked shuttle headed up into space and out of sight.

“No! How can this be? I was right on the verge of uniting mankind 
through intercommunication and unity of thought,” he gasped.

“I’m afraid you’ve been betrayed, my love.”

The Gargoyle turned around at the sound of Felicity’s voice, only it was 
no longer the girl he loved. Instead it was yet another of those cats 
that had taken over the base and shuttle.

With his intelligence, he knew exactly what had happened, but he had to 
say it aloud to believe it. “You’re… you’re one of them?”

Felicity nodded. “Yes, I was assigned to seduce and encourage you to 
embark on this plan. You see, the electromagnetic wave projectors you 
have on all of your satellites in combination with the receivers you’ve 
been giving away to everyone to ‘help with global communication’, the 
ones with the miniature pulse generators inside them, can be used to do 
something other than influence people into passivity so they won’t go 
around killing one another.”

“You knew about that?” he gasped.

“Oh yes. Phantom Cat abilities are very adept at raiding computer 
files,” Felicity explained. “Rather than sending out subtle waves to 
influence people over a prolonged period of time, we’re going to tailor 
an EM burst that will shut down human brains instead. Thanks to you we 
can blanket the entire earth with it. We won’t even need the receivers 
on earth since we’re going for one overpowering assault, rather than 
prolonged manipulation like you planned.”

“You’ll kill everyone,” he said, staring at her in horror.

Felicity appeared sad. “Yes, we need the room. Our dimension is 
overpopulated, and we need a new one to move into. This is the perfect 
environment for us. However, your planet could not sustain both our 
races: we are too numerous. It’s either you or us, and we choose us.” 
She gave a sigh. “My apologies for leading you on. I genuinely like you. 
Were it possible, I would find some way to leave you alive, but it 
isn’t. So instead, I’ll give you a choice: you can wait until the pulse 
blankets the earth and shuts down your brain, or I can kill you now so 
you won’t have to witness the end. I promise you it will be quick and 
painless. You won’t even know what happened.” She flexed her claws 
meaningfully.

Before the Gargoyle could answer the door to his room was kicked in. 
Standing in the entryway was a tall masked girl, with long brown hair, 
dressed in a sailor fuku with green edging and lightning bolts all over 
her boots, uniform, and gloves.

Before anyone could move a bolt of electricity shot from her hand, 
striking Felicity in the side. The cat girl convulsed, let out a soul 
searing scream, then dissipated, as though she truly had been nothing 
more than a phantom that appeared like a cat rather than a cat that 
acted like a phantom.

The intruder said, “I see the information from Hound about that 
particular electrical wavelength being the one to destroy Phantom Cats 
was accurate.”

The Gargoyle stared at the girl. “I recognize you. You’re the Living 
Lightning.”

The Living Lightning stared at him impassively. “My mistress sent me to 
save you from certain termination. She appreciates your genius and 
wishes to hire you, in light of the fact that once the truth of your 
‘communication system’ comes to light, you will be imprisoned, if not 
executed. She offers a lucrative salary as well as benefits package.”

Panicked, the Gargoyle said, “You don’t realize what’s going on. The 
Phantom Cats are going to kill humanity.”

The Living Lightning shook her head. “Rest assured, steps have already 
been taken to prevent that. Were they not, I would have been personally 
sent to destroy the satellite. Now, it is recommended you take my 
mistress up on her offer.” She raised a glowing hand and aimed it at him.

Things were happening too fast for even his increased intellect to fully 
comprehend. Still, even he could see the only possible safe course for 
his actions. “I agree.”

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

“Let me out!” Tigra hissed as she banged against the walls of the glass 
tube she had unceremoniously been stuffed in. Whatever the giant tube 
was made of was damn thick to resist her super strength. Of course, even 
if she escaped she had nowhere to go.

Once the shuttle had taken off she had stopped resisting. If she had 
broken free she had nowhere to go. It wasn’t like she could survive 
reentry like Iron Rose. She listened calmly, waiting for some 
opportunity to escape as they went into orbit and eventually 
rendezvoused with the space station that served as the hub for all of 
this Mr. Comrade’s global communications. Tigra had been offloaded and 
shoved into one of these tubes. At the moment she was left to do nothing 
more than simmer in her own juices while the cats fooled around with the 
equipment, setting it up for something which was far beyond her 
technical expertise.

After several minutes of poring over a console, Cougar gave a triumphant 
shout, “At last! Everything checks out! Humanity will be exterminated in 
the time it takes the electromagnetic charge to build up.”

“Aiyah! What mangy hairball mean?” Tigra asked.

“No need to worry your pretty head about useless details,” Cougar said 
in a soothing tone which only irked Tigra even more. “Besides, I 
couldn’t hope to explain it to you in less than a minute, and I’m not 
delaying the countdown for a single second.”

“Oooh, pretty please,” Tigra cooed, putting her most noticeable 
attributes ‘up against the glass’.

Cougar looked at her hungrily. “Don’t worry. Once I’ve confirmed the 
extermination of humanity, we can begin the ritual of the Crossing.”

“What ritual?” Tigra asked warily.

“The mating ritual between the Balkatar, which is myself, and the Tigra, 
which is you. Our union will open up a dimensional gateway between this 
dimension and ours, which will enable the pride to come to a rich, 
fertile, and humanless planet.”

The Avenger paled. “Tigra not Phantom Cat! Tigra were-woman!”

Cougar looked at her curiously. “You keep saying that word. I don’t 
think it means what you think it means.”

Tigra pounded her head against the clear wall.

Toonces said, “The charge is built up, sir. Would you like to do the 
honors?”

“You’d better believe it!” Cougar practically danced to the button to 
ignite the pulse. He was right next to it as he said, “As Balkatar, I 
will—“ He shook his head furiously. “Blast, I almost made a speech. 
Sorry about that. I’ll kill humanity then make a victory speech. Or 
maybe it’ll be a congratulatory speech. We’ll figure it out later.”

Cougar touched the button, and then the room was filled with light.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

“And so it ends.” The Phantom Cat called Raven shifted her body to her 
‘true form’, that of the ebon-skinned shapeshifting mutant the world 
knew as Mystique. The cries of the disintegrating Phantom Cats on board 
the satellite had been as hideous as anything she had heard, and she had 
heard many hideous things in her long life. She was responsible for many 
of them, including this one.

She had to admit, Irie’s plot had been a good one, and it was difficult 
to impress Raven Darkholme. Altering the Phantom Cats’ plan for the 
global extermination of humanity into one to exterminate the Phantom 
Cats had been a stroke of genius. And all it had taken was Mystique 
infiltrating the race by aligning herself with the most powerful side. 
Then she waited until the last moment to place a chip which altered the 
electromagnetic wavelength from one that killed humans to the one that 
eradicated Phantom Cats. How ironic that the race had ended up pulling 
the trigger on themselves. Though it was a good thing she had aligned 
herself with Cougar instead of Black Cat. From what she had gathered, he 
had been a shrewd one, and there was a realistic possibility he would 
have sniffed out her plan, or taken precautions that the system couldn’t 
be turned against him in this manner. But Cougar had been far too 
bloodthirsty and visceral. The idea that someone could outsmart him had 
never entered his mind. He was sneaky in combat, to be certain, but it 
was an animal’s instinct rather than a Machiavellian train of thought

Like Mystique’s.

Oh yes. Already the plan had formed in her mind. Given the persecutions 
of mutants in so many corners of the world, she had no compunction 
against the extermination of humans. In fact she would rather enjoy it. 
Unfortunately the Phantom Cats’ biases saw no difference between homo 
sapiens and homo superior, but Mystique most certainly did. And the 
system which had just sent a pulse that had eliminated every Phantom Cat 
worldwide could theoretically be adjusted to do the same to ordinary 
humans. Magneto would certainly be interested in the potential. Mystique 
would even volunteer the information for nothing in the hopes it was 
successful.

It would prove Irene and her mutant precognitive abilities wrong. 
Mystique still couldn’t believe her old friend had switched to Xavier’s 
side, insisting mutants’ best chance for survival would be coexistence 
with humans, and that with some modifications, Xavier held the best 
chance of that. Mystique knew better, had lived too long with humanity. 
They would never accept mutants due to their inherent superiority. One 
side or the other must fall. Not all that different from the Phantom 
Cats perspective, really.

Mystique inserted several disks to copy the station’s files and waited. 
As she did so, she tuned around….

…And saw a very angry Tigra staring daggers at her through her tube.

“What the hell?” Mystique had made certain the interior projector she 
had slaved to the panel bathed the entire room with the pulse and 
eradicated all the Phantom Cats. The Tigra should have been killed as well.

“How did you survive?”

“Tigra not Phantom Cat!” she raged.

“You know, I believe you,” Mystique said. “I also believe you know too 
much, bimbo that you are. I….“ The mutant stopped as Tigra undid the 
cat-shaped clasp at the front of her uniform… hell, it was a bikini, 
allowing her breasts to spill free.

Mystique was only slightly surprised. The attractive often used sex to 
bargain for their life. Mystique had used it on more than one tight 
occasion. “Sorry, while I have used male guises and slept with women, it 
was only in the line of duty. I am heterosexual by choice, and 
definitely not into furries. So it’s useless….”

Again the girl was doing something very curious as she pulled something 
off the back of the ornament and pressed the clasp against the glass 
wall. It stuck. Some sort of adhesive. Mystique watched as the Avenger 
pulled the belt of teeth from her waist. Inserting one tooth at the end 
of the belt into the cat face of the clasp, she then removed another 
tooth from the middle while holding the far end. She brought the tooth 
in her left hand back, then forward to the one in her right in a 
striking motion.

Instinctively Mystique leapt back just as the clasp exploded. The shaped 
charge sent the glass away from the interior of the tube. She only took 
a handful of small slivers of glass in her body.

As Mystique rose to her feet, Tigra stepped out of the shattered tube, 
looking exceptionally angry.

Mystique activated the ‘claws’ from the glove of her outfit. They were a 
gift from Irie, made of synthetic Phantom Cat nails and guaranteed to do 
damage to them just like a real Phantom Cat claw would. She held them 
before her face. “You might not know who I am, so let me inform you. My 
name is Mystique. I am one of the world’s foremost assassins.”

The cat girl stopped and gave a playful smile. “Actually, Tigra have a 
secret she share with you.” And with that her smile changed in some 
indescribable manner. It went from warm and pleasing to something else.

The same sort of smile Mystique saw when she looked in a mirror.

“So am I.” Tigra said in flawless Japanese as she held up her own claws 
in identical fashion to Mystique’s. “Small world, isn’t it?”

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

“What nice weather we’re having,” Irie said to the dozen members of 
Hound that surrounded him in the middle of the open field. They were the 
best of the best, with Narusawa in charge of the group. A good girl, 
that one. A pity she couldn’t duplicate herself the way that Jamie 
Madrox character could. At least the feelers Irie had sent to Madrox 
indicated he might be lured away from Gyrich for the right price.

But things were up in the air now. From all appearances, Operation Deep 
Freeze had gone off without a hitch. Every single Phantom Cat they knew 
of, including the ones that had been captured for observation, had 
disintegrated before their eyes. The planned genocide of humanity had 
been swapped out for the Phantom Cats, and the felines only had 
themselves to blame. Not that Irie really cared about how engineered 
what. He never understood that whole ‘blood on one’s hands concept’ 
other than in a purely intellectual capacity.

In any case with the apparent success of his organization’s stated goal, 
he would soon find himself unemployed. Only one loose end to tie up, and 
according to the transponder signal, it was rapidly approaching.

“Ah, there it comes.” Irie stared up in the sky as the escape pod from 
the space station went from a small red glow to a big one, then slowed 
down as breaking jets ignited, decelerating the pod’s decent until it 
went in for a soft landing in the middle of the field no more than a 
hundred meters away. He had to admit, Mr. Comrade, well, probably better 
to go with his original name, the Gargoyle, was a true genius. A pity 
the man had disappeared. Irie would have loved to recruit him for his 
own operations, But the diminutive genius had disappeared right after 
the shuttle debacle. No doubt he would turn up at some point. Maybe even 
alive.

“Let’s go.” The group approached the fallen pod, weapons at the ready. 
All except Irie, who appeared for all the world like he was going on a 
casual stroll through the countryside.

He waited a short distance away, placing himself with in front of the 
hatch to the pod. There was a hiss of escaping air and it slowly lifted 
upward.

Irie said, “Welcome back to Earth, Raven. I will have to ask for those 
disks you have no doubt copied from well now, this is an interesting 
turn of events.”

Tigra emerged from the pod, covered in a healthy amount of blood. While 
there were missing streaks of fur from several parts of her body, and 
one patch missing near her abdomen, there were no open wounds upon her. 
Still she looked very much the worse for wear.

Wearily, she walked toward Irie, all of the Hound troopers aiming their 
weapons at her. Narusawa interjected herself between Irie and the cat girl.

One of the men shouted, “It’s a Phantom—“

“If Tigra hear someone say she Phantom Cat one more time that person 
find out what it mean to ‘bleed out’!” she snarled.

Irie said, “Now, now, no need for bloodshed.” He looked Tigra over. 
“Further bloodshed. I take it Raven will not be joining us?”

“Very tragic accident. Poor girl fall on own fake claws. Several times. 
Too, too clumsy.”

“I see.” Irie put a hand into his pocket, which held a small transmitter 
with a button on it. He pushed the button. When the cat girl’s claws 
didn’t detonate and blow her hands off, he assumed it was not Mystique 
in disguise. True, sabotaging her equipment was not a nice thing to do, 
but neither was her likely betrayal. It was always possible this person 
before him was Mystique in disguise and she had ditched the gloves, but 
it didn’t feel right. After all, she would have needed them should the 
plan have not worked and the Phantom Cats on Earth had somehow survived. 
She would only have discarded them if she was certain they had no 
further use.

“We really must be certain you’re not a Phantom Cat,” Irie pointed out. 
“Perhaps you would submit to an examination?”

“No.” If ice could speak, it would sound almost as cold as that.

“What if I were to insist?”

Tigra shrugged. “History full of people who make bad decisions. Look how 
many try to invade Russia in winter.”

Oh, how intriguing. She wasn’t half the airhead she appeared to be. Also 
Mystique had never possessed that sort of sense of humor. “How about a 
show of trust? Completely on my part, since you obviously have no trust 
in me.”

“What?”

“I have a special gun,” he pulled it out, unworried about her reaction. 
She already had a dozen guns aimed at her, after all. “This only works 
on Phantom Cats. I can shoot you with it, and if it doesn’t dissolve 
your form in a very painful, non-messy manner, we’ll know you’re not one.”

Tigra held out an open hand. “Good idea. In exchange, Little Man put 
throat in here. Claws special. Only hurt lying mens.”

“Very well.” The members of Hound were aghast as Irie did as she 
suggested, placing his throat in her open grip. Even Tigra was 
astonished at the casual manner he had in putting his life literally in 
her hand.

“I’ll aim for your foot,” he assured her.

She watched carefully for a trick. Irie triggered the gun, a lance of 
electricity shooting out. All it did was make Tigra’s foot tickle. Once 
he holstered his gun, she released his throat.

“It’s safe, gentlemen. Tigra is indeed a were-woman, whatever that is. 
In any case, we can be assured she is not a Phantom Cat. One last 
concession, however, and it has nothing to do with your feline status. I 
would ask that we be allowed to search your person to make certain you 
didn’t bring any contraband with you.”

She spun around, showing her outfit consisted only of her bikini. “Where 
Tigra put contraband?”

“Oh, you’d be amazed how inventive some people are with their orifices.”

Some of the male soldiers volunteered to perform a strip search. They 
then retracted their offer as their interest literally withered when 
Tigra turned her gaze on them.

“I think Narusawa is up to the task,” Irie suggested. When Tigra saw it 
was a woman, she agreed to a private one in the shuttle, though she did 
grimace as Narusawa put on a rubber glove.

A few minutes later, both women emerged from the pod, Tigra looking more 
pissed than ever.

“Sorry. Lubricant isn’t part of a standard Hound field kit,” Narusawa 
said apologetically.

Irie appeared delighted. “Now that we’ve confirmed your identity and 
lack of contraband, and I’m not foolish enough to suggest we take up any 
more of your time in a debriefing.”

Tigra’s look made everyone but the inscrutable Irie tighten their grips 
on their guns.

“I’ll accept your word that you won’t tell anyone about the events that 
happened today. Besides, who would believe a story about a race of 
Phantom Cats? It’s not like there’s any proof, now is there? Purely 
urban legend, like the rabid albino alligators that supposed live in 
sewers. Only children take nonsense like that seriously.”

“Is good point,” Tigra acknowledged. “What Tigra tell Avengers about 
escaping non-existent Phantom Cats, though?”

“Oh, go ahead and tell them the truth. I don’t see them getting all that 
worked up about it. Unlike the majority of the population, I assume cat 
people abductions aren’t that unusual given your line of work.”

“Is sad, but true,” Tigra admitted.

Irie clapped his hands together. “Now that that’s taken care of, why 
don’t we give you a lift back to the Avengers? They’ll be happy to see 
you, especially since they were none too happy about us letting them 
take you up into space. But it was the best way to clean up the mess 
those fictional Phantom Cats caused.”

“Tigra not in mood to argue. Just let Avengers know is all right, then 
want bath and sleep.”

“A good way to end the day,” Irie agreed.

And that was exactly what Tigra did.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

[Epilogue]
[Two weeks later]

“So, we have confirmation, thanks to the slut Taba is sleeping with---“

“I am not sleeping with Narusawa!”

“--that the Phantom Cats insidious plan for global genocide backfired in 
their faces and booted every last one of them from our world.”

“And dat Tigra chick is not a Phantom Cat.”

“Correct, which means we have a major problem.”

“We’re out of smokes?”

“No, we’re out of jobs. People won’t hire us to stop Phantom Cats if 
there aren’t any Phantom Cats to stop.”

“And we’re still in the red. Let’s grab a paper and start looking 
through the wants ads.”

“Actually, I have a better idea. I’m thinking something big. Something 
lucrative. Something like… Heroes for Hire.”

“I think there’s already an outfit like that.”

“Unless they’ve copyrighted it, it’s up for grabs. Maybe we’ll even hire 
them on as additional staff.”

“And I won’t be low man on the totem pole.”

“You’ll always be low man on the totem pole, Taba.”

“I hate my job.”

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[End Act III]

Finally, everything is wrapped up for this act. Yes, I know this act was 
a bit weak on characterization and moving major things along in the 
cast’s alter-egos lives, (well, except for resolving the Ranma/Ryouga 
conflict.) So next Act I’ll be trying to move things along a little 
better. Also sorry it took so long to get this out, especially since it 
wasn’t all that big. You’ll note I took a ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ bent 
with the Phantom Cats arc (the hero had no effect on the end result) 
Yes, the Avengers weren’t actually instrumental in stopping the Phantom 
Cats, but there’s a big world out there and they aren’t the only ones 
defending it. Also Irie is not going to disappear, and there were a few 
other things that will eventually come about as the results of this arc.

Next Act will be ‘The Hate Monger and The Peacemaker’. With both old and 
new foes, as well as some more movement on the private lives of our cast.