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TEAMCLAW EPISODE II

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aking his way across the yard, Nemo glanced back and forth instinctively to watch out for humans.  Jumping craftily over the fence that surrounds the back yard, Nemo raced over the air conditioner unit and quickly found a button secured on it.  Pressing it, the air conditioner lifted up and turned around to reveal a communicator.  Touching quickly across the screen, Nemo accessed the main computer in the house through this unit and picked up the e-mail that he had been paged through his com-unit in his tail to check earlier.    Still slightly annoyed at being woken up from his sleep, Nemo yawned and glared at the screen.  Nothing was more annoying then being woken up by a vibrating tail. 

            Finally pulling up the e-mail, Nemo wished that he had not bothered. 

            "He is tracking you," Is what the message said.  

            It did not take Nemo long to figure out whom 'he' was; Nemo knew that 'he' was referring to Viktor.  Turning the communicator off, Nemo pushed the button again and secured the air conditioner back into the ground.  Scanning his eyes across the yard, he made sure no one had been watching, but happened to miss two green eyes staring at him from the tall plants in the flower garden that were right next to the house.   Turning back around, he sat down on his haunches while trying to devise up a plan.  Nemo did not know what to do.  Glancing at the setting sun Nemo sighed heavily, he knew that if Viktor did find them, they would have to relocate.  Nemo had lived at this house ever since he had become an agent…which was about the time his actual memories started.

            Figuring that he had about an hour before Viktor would be theoretically close, Nemo tried to t decide how Viktor might be tracking them.  Though to Nemo, as he thought to himself, he was more interested in taking Viktor on again in a fight.  Nemo was very curious about how remembering the dreams helped him do the moves that he had done last night, because after Yoru and Tsuki had gone to bed, Nemo had tried remembering more dreams to see if he could do what he had done, but had failed.  Nemo decided to himself, that the dreams only surfaced when he was in trouble, or when his life was in danger.  Though it was still strange why it had not done it before.

            Turning to walk across the boards that rimmed the garden, Nemo was met face to face by another cat. 

 “How could you let him find us,” hissed Duchess, who is formally known by the humans as Momma Kitty.  “It seems that once again your wreck-less attitude has led us into trouble.  I have been here too long to be forced to relocate.”  She coy-fully stepped out of the flower garden, sat down, and brought her eyelevel to his.

Nemo rolled his eyes.  The all but too familiar voice that taunted him every time he made a mistake had emerged from her slumber.  “I don’t know,” Nemo admitted, “but I do know that he has not found us yet.  So just get off my back, and remember that we are all in this together.” 

Keeping her glare as icy as possible, she bared down her discontent on the answer, “…Together?  We have never been together. We may have worked at the same time, but I am NOT part of your team.  And unlike you, I am retired, and am trying to enjoy a life of peace and relaxation.” 

“Ms. Kitty, I realize that this is very unfortunate, but I have no control over it.”

She tilted her head farther forward in annoyance, “Find him and FIND HIM NOW!” Her fur was bristled on end, while her eyes a narrow slit.

Nemo was flustered; he did not have time for another fight with Duchess.   “Duchess, you know standard procedure, I can’t do anything until nightfall.  I can’t even scan the area for him to see the device that he is using to track us.”  While trying to be as respectful as he could, without getting angry, Nemo knew that this was a serious situation.  Nemo also knew that Duchess had been here for over 11 years, and she had every right to be angry, but he did not need an older cat to tell him about the reality.  Letting his mind slightly wander, thinking back to Duchess’s first and only relocation, Nemo was saddened.  Rumors had it that her parents had died in an earlier mission; back in the days that involved Tenalt.  Smiling, Nemo thought about Viktor, and was very glad that he had not inherited his fathers ruthless behavior, as of yet.

Unfortunately Ms. Kitty also saw the smile and was very aware of the fact that she was being ignored.  Getting up into his face she hissed at him, “It would be easy for you to relocate now, but I don’t ever want it to happen again.”  She grew strangely sad for a moment.

Caught off guard by the confession, he looked at her, “I am sorry, I didn’t mean to…” Nemo was cut off when she looked back at him with her a sad expression, but immediately flipped back to her icy mode.

“You had better do something right now.  Whether or not you follow procedure, Viktor is not going to wait for nightfall.  You should know that.”  Momma kitty turned from Nemo and walked away.  Obvious that old age was creeping in, she limped as she turned the corner and disappeared from sight.

Thinking a little harder, Nemo realized that Duchess was right.  Even with the added cover of nightfall, Viktor would not wait for the regulations of HQ, so Nemo and his team could apprehend him.

Suddenly, Nemo’s ears clicked towards the direction of the front of the house.  Racing across the lawn, he effortlessly leapt over the fence and landed on the other side.  Glancing up at the door, one of the smaller humans was coming home from a friend’s house.  Racing up the stairs and to the door, Nemo waited for her to open the door.  Making her way up the stairs, the girl smiled at Nemo and opened the door to let him in, while following in after.

Thinking to himself, Nemo knew he had the hard part coming up; getting to the control room.  Racing to the main entrance to the bathroom, Nemo halted and scurried back as one of the bigger family members was occupying the entrance.  Knowing that the bathroom parallel to this one, on the other side of the wall, was still under construction, nemo dashed into the master bedroom and into that bathroom.  Twisting his way through the mess, he found the uncovered heater vent, and squoze his way down into it.  Coughing from the dust, he slid his body through the narrow passage until he finally came the desired spot beneath the floor.  Pressing the side of the heaters pipes, it easily was pryed open.  Stepping out of the door that had been previously made, Nemo quickly brushed off the dust, and spider webs that had cluttered the vents passages over the years and watched as the lights once more flickered on in the control room. 

There were many passages to get to one place in this house, Nemo smiled and thought to himself.

Getting serious, Nemo stared at the computer and contemplated again, not wanting to break the standard HQ rules.  There was a lot at stake here, so Nemo finally decided that he did not want to let his fellow agents at this house down. 

Loading up the main screen he waited for it to load and when it did, he immediately opened up the scanning program.  Figuring that Viktor might have stuck some kind of tracking device on him, Tsuki,  Yoru, or their equipment, Nemo decided to search the house first.  Scanning the house, the inquiry brought nothing up.  Changing the settings on the program, he tried once more, but once again brought nothing up.  Wanting to make sure that it had not been anything in the house that would give away their position, even though all the power in the house would flicker off for a second, Nemo cranked the settings to max.  Finally the computer beeped and came up with a reading.  Clicking on the icon, the computer stated that there was a radio tag down stairs and in the storage closet, which was underneath the cage that Tsuki and Yoru called home. 

“That is strange,” thought Nemo, “it is old technology and the radio tag doesn’t even transmit anything… Thinking harder, the answer immediately hit him like a brick. “Because if it did transmit,” Nemo figured, “the control room would have instantly alerted him of it.”   The radio tag was used more like a blinking marker that could be viewed by a larger unit that would transmit and scan for it.

 Widening the scan on Nemo’s computer to include the entire rural region, Nemo grinned as he got his results.  Zooming in on the computer, he noticed that a couple blocks off was the transmitter. Moving slowly, because the person was most likely in the sewer, but definitely coming.  Thinking quickly, Nemo did not have much time to act.

Thinking as to what he should do, Nemo dashed out of the cupboard entrance and quickly headed down the stairs.  At this point Nemo did not care what the humans thought of him.  Ignoring the strange stares, he raced down the stairs to the basement and over to the cage where Tuski and Yoru saw him.  Knowing that something that was up, they immediately stopped their wrestling match, since part of their assignment was to act like they didn’t get along very well at times, they watched intently as he approached their cage. 

Quickly establishing the fact that none of the humans were down in the basement, Nemo hurriedly commanded Yoru and Tsuki to watch the stairs.   Waiting for them as they dashed out of their cage, to secretly watch for the human family’s movement, Nemo found the hot spot on the floor and pawed it.  Snapping, the hot spot recognized Nemo’s touch and a grinding noise commenced as the two foot slab of concrete, hissed out of the floor.  Lifting back, it revealed their equipment closet that Nemo had grabbed the invisible pack last night.  Holding the scanning pad forward, of which he had grabbed from the control room, Nemo looked at it intentionally as he hovered it over the items from last nights mission. 
            “Aha!” nemo yelled in satisfaction, “You guys picked it up on our last mission and brought it home with you.”  Yoru and Tuski stared back from their post with blank expressions. 

First of all they were confused by the break in HQ’s protocol of only working at night, unless stated specifically do to do so, but second, they had no clue of the impending doom that was coming closer.  Holding up one of the Velcro boots that Nemo had given them, Nemo called them over to explain. 

As usual Tsuki was there first.  Noticing the equipment and thinking about what Nemo had just said, Tsuki discovered what he was doing, “I guess we should have know that he was going to pull something else.  I mean, COME ON,” Tsuki exclaimed!! “He was trying to blow us and the power plant sky high, just so people would not wake up?!  “

“Of course,” Said Yoru, “Viktor probably stuck it on one of us as he ran away.  He sure acted different when he saw you fight like you did.   And when you grew dizzy, he acted like he was going to take you down…”  Finally making his way completely he laid down.

“So what did he use to track us,” asked Tsuki?

Nemo nodded to Tsuki’s and Yoru’s statements, “Viktor used a radio tag.  HQ picked up info that Viktor was tracking us and because Viktor used a Radio Tag, the control room didn’t pick it up because radio tags do not send out frequencies.  Since you guys are a bit young, I will explain.  A good example is how a bat picks up food.  When a bat is flying at night, since they are naturally blind, they use a high pitch sound that emanates from their mouth.  The sound bounces off of all objects, and depending on how soon it bounces back, the bat knows that there are objects there, by hearing the sound return.   So when it is hunting food, it does it in the same manner, and is quickly able to find its food by screeching and listening to its frequencies.”  Holding up the Radio Tag Nemo continued, “This Radio Tag is rigged to where when the transmitter sends its searching wave of info, it creates a ping that will be picked up on a transmitter, but cannot be interpreted as information being sent.”  Continuing in his explanition, Nemo concluded, “If there was a radio tag, it would then need something to transmit to it, or in other words, the bat.  That person, or in other words, the creature is now looking for this and we don’t have much time.”

“Viktor,” Yoru depressingly stated.

“Yes,” Nemo chided in to affirm his conclusions.  “Though he is still a good distance off, if he finds us, not only would we have to transfer, but we would be putting the humans in danger.”

Tsuki and Yoru looked at each other in fear.  They loved the humans and first of all didn’t want them getting hurt, but even more, did not want to lose them and move away.  They had been here since they were tiny kittens, and it had been because of being brought to this house by one of the humans, that they were now part of HQ.  After they had been brought here, Nemo had inducted them and trained them…and the whole process was done here.  There were many fond memories for both of them here, with Nemo, and the humans.

Letting them mull over the facts for a second, Nemo peered at the boot, rolling it back and forth in his paws looking for the tag.  Frustrated, Nemo could not find where the tag had been stuck.

Trotting over, Tuski, as Nemo was intently looking at the boots, glanced at it for a second, reached towards it and popped out the radio tag.  Nemo looked at her in disbelief as she handed it to him.  Trying to hold back his surprise, he turned his attention the chip that was the size of  a pin head. 

Discussing what they should do with the chip, Nemo and his team decided that it was obvious that getting the tag out of the house was the best idea, but to get it out without Viktor knowing it was the hard part. 

Nemo placed the tag on the scanning pad that he had just used.  The pad hummed for a moment as it analyzed the tag and its inner workings.  Finished, it projected a light image around the tag that pulsed every twenty seconds, as the diagnostics started to appear. 

Looking at the reading, Nemo decided, “It looks like that from the second we move the tag ten or to fifteen feet, we have about twenty seconds to do whatever we can to get it out.  If not, Viktor is going to be able to realize that there was a shift in location… Nemo broke off as one of the Humans started to descend the stairs.  Dashing into their cage, Yoru and Tsuki slammed the door shut, while Nemo looked around and headed for one of the couches.  Suddenly Tsuki squealed and pointed, “The closet Nemo, THE CLOSET!”

Grabbing the carpet with his claws, Nemo back end twisted over his head as the gravitational force of his run continued to go towards the couch.  Tearing towards the closet, he punched the button and scuttled to the couch.  Climbing underneath Nemo watched anxiously as the closet door closed.  Hissing at Yoru and Tsuki to fight, so as to mask the sound of the door closing, Nemo then became completely quiet as the human rounded the bend of the last stair.  Walking over to the cage where Tsuki and Yoru were, the two cats stopped fighting and turned their attention to the human and meowed at him.  Perfectly playing their parts, the life form seemed happy and popped open their cage and continued to his bedroom, which was just beyond.  After the Human closed the door, Tsuki and Yoru wandered over to the couch and sprawled down.

Talking to him from up above, Tsuki said, “So what are we going to do Nemo?”

Pulling the scanner out from underneath himself, where he had stuck it, Nemo said, “I was about to say that we could transport it out, but it is too early before sunset; too many humans awake.” 

Secretly adjusting the scanning pad, Nemo noted Viktor’s location.  “He is still a good distance away, but we don’t have enough time to wait for the life forms to go to bed.  On top of that we have a twenty second window to get it out of here once we move it.   I am fast, but with the humans still awake, I am not sure that I could make it out of the house or even to the closet in time.

“What if…” Thought Yoru out loud, “what if we teleported it to every house in the whole city?!”

Tsuki looked at him as if he was stupid.  “What kind of plan is that?!  You know that the teleporter is only one way and on top of that, it teleports to REGIONS, not specific locations.”

Ignoring Tsuki’s comment, Nemo thought about the possibilities.  HQ had once told him that they had installed an experimentory feature in the teleporter, which they were planning to give to the rest of the agents worldwide.  This option was the ability to be able to pull objects that it had teleported back to that same machine that had sent it.  This feature never made it past experimental because living creatures never survived the transfer back…

“Considering the length of time,” Nemo concluded, “that will have to do.   Both of you guard and try everything you can to the keep the humans from going up or down the stairs.  Tsuki,” Nemo commanded, “you get the upstairs and Yoru, you get down below.  Move OUT!”  Dashing up the stairs Tsuki was gone, while Yoru walked over and sat on the last step.  Whizzing by him, Nemo bolted from the underneath the couch, with scanning pad in hand and raced up the stairs.

Opening the transporter door, he popped the control panel out and quickly programmed it to teleport and to bring itself back from the region in the whole city simultaneously.   Even if it would be sent to the same region twice, it would teleport to a different part every single time. 

Pulling the radio tag from his scanning pad, he threw it into the tiny matter transporter room and shut the door.  Waiting for the coordinates to load, he glanced at his pad; just five more seconds.  Looking back at the coordinate panel, Nemo exclaimed, “Perfect timing!”  Jamming down the send button, he listened to the machine begin to repeatedly work.  If this didn’t work Nemo and his team would not have a chance to stop Viktor.

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