The Wildcat Blitz

Hello. Leo the Patriotic Lion here. Evil never stops, it seems. You have to admire their persistence seeing as how they will never win the battle between good and evil, or so television told us. Evil won every once in a while, but good always struck back. This was especially true of the G-52 organization. When defeat seemed inevitable, we proved otherwise.

All the while, there was nothing to make my patriotic blood boil hotter than ever than the world’s most sought-after terrorists, namely, the Quarrelsome Quartet. But we seemed to be in a post-Q4 era, because Alkadozer was dead after WARCAT killed him in a duel, in an event history will forever remember as “WARCAT’s Charge.” Jerry J. Godllub and Pierre De Feet, two other bosses, were in jail, and Godllub’s twin, Barry, was fighting on our side, as well as proving to be the strongest bulldog in the world. In addition to that, all the henchmen, proving to be the dumbest henchmen that ever roamed the face of this earth, were all in Alcatraz, with absolutely no way out. That left Alfred Coats Bendraqi. And he wasn’t an easy villain to stand up to, and I had to deal with the fact that while others may have obeyed me regardless of who I was ordering, he would not.

My campaign also inspired the general public of Wildcat City (at least the furry population, if not the humans, but that’s their problem) to fight back if needed. In our city’s history, the city has fought against the forces of evil in the same way the citizens of Coffeyville, Kansas united to defeat the infamous Dalton brothers and other outlaws involved in the bank holdup. Now that’s teamwork!

This particular battle wasn’t a case of the citizens teaming up as mentioned, but they did take all precautions necessary in order to shield themselves from the damage. Even the news crews had to take five. It all can be blamed on Bendraqi, since he was and is responsible for the damages, but with Cripto’s superpowers, the city was back to normal in a flash as if it never even happened. Of course, it did happen, because I am living proof of it, and so are my comrades.

History will forever remember this battle as the “Wildcat Blitz,” because of the way Bendraqi dropped the bomb on our town similar to how the Germans bombed London (despite this, the UK won the battle). This battle was also the first time that Moo and his posse would see me in my golden armor, and Tom in his silver armor.

Instead of an entire assault force of airplanes, Bendraqi settled for an updated version of the Q4’s Laser Beam 5000, which was used to destroy Kriegland, even though the population got away safely. His basic idea was to surprise the town into fear, but the citizens were prepared, having been used to hearing the Beam late at night (such as when the LaGume twins tried to destroy the abandoned military base now used by the K.A.T.C., or Kriegland Army Tiger Corps, the toughest tigers in the universe). Ironically, the soldiers knew about the beam in advance before the top officer, General Mike Lewis, knew about it.

Bendraqi dropped all sorts of bombs and lasers on the now-empty city, and by the time I was informed, my comrades were already marching into battle, and not one drummer to motivate them. Go figure. Anyways, SuperCat led the attack with DANGER WOMAN, Grease, The Avenger, and my superhero counterpart, Leo the Super Patriotic Lion or Super Leo for short (likewise, Tom’s counterpart was Tom the Super Patriotic Tiger, or Super Tom for short).

It felt like we were fighting for hours and getting nowhere fast. Many times, SuperCat had to send THE AVENGER, Grease, or Super Leo to intercept a bomb and prevent it from destroying important buildings in the town, such as City Hall, the Courthouse, the Municipal Building, and Mayor Leo Clarkson’s house. SuperCat used his heat vision to counterattack attacks from Bendraqi as soon as he saw us coming for him.

“Why can’t I do anything without those idiots showing up?” he screamed. “Leave me alone, you swashbuckling, stupid, sorry sorts! You can’t handle the truth! The truth that I shall rule the world and restore the policies of Communism that are rightfully to be insured on this land!”

“That is an outright lie!” SuperCat yelled back. “This nation wasn’t founded on Communist principles! We’ve been capitalist all the way and we’re staying that way!”

“Exactly the words I would’ve used,” I said to myself.

“So would’ve I,” said Tom.

About three hours later after tireless—and seemingly worthless, but not entirely worthless—fighting, we came up with a new strategy to ward off enemy fire. At SuperCat’s command, Grease tried one of his huge breaths just to ward off enemy fire, but he had no success using it on the offensive. He also overheard Bendraqi say to himself, “Nothing can stop me now! Their weapons are as pathetic as their system of government! Oh, it’s so much fun being evil, and watching this nation fall to its doom!”

“Overconfident, isn’t he?” Grease made the comment. “He’s thinking he’s invincible!”

“And that’s why he’s destined to fail in the end,” I said. “Pride comes before a fall.”

Enlisting D.W.’s help, SuperCat, Super Leo, and Super Tom shot straight up like rockets before the four of them aimed for the top of the blimp that was housing the Laser Beam 5000, and charged straight at it with supersonic speed. Bendraqi, not wanting such a thing to happen, called for his endless supply of goons aboard his blimp to hoard off the invaders of justice. SuperCat avoided them and engaged in head-to-hand combat with the big, bad boss while the other three, through various moves, punches, and kicks, fought the goons.

Half an hour later, the blimp finally showed signs of slowing down. SuperCat was still in the boxing ring with Bendraqi at this point, but Super Leo, Super Tom, and D.W. had finished damaging the goons and their reputations. They threw signals to the others on ground patrol when some of the goons who escaped dove toward the ground. WARCAT used his pistol to shield him from the enemy attacks, Cripto snapped his fingers to prepare shields for his comrades, and Tom and I used weapons from my Patriotmobile while making sure the American flag designs on the car didn’t take a scratch.

Bendraqi and SuperCat fought over the controls to the blimp while the other three scrambled outside and steered the blimp to where it wouldn’t cause any more trouble to the city, although Super Leo spread the word to the public it was safe to come out. Familiar with how we wouldn’t accept rewards and sometimes got tired of applause, the public resumed their normal business as if nothing had happened, even though the damage would show otherwise. But as soon as Cripto snapped his fingers (at Crush’s command), the city returned to normal, although joyous in their mood, which the Pride of Wildcat City (the numerous furry marching bands in town) helped to reinforce.

The blimp continued to make its way towards the outskirts of town until it came across an abandoned desert area we knew as the “Forbidden Zone,” so named because no one dared to ever go in there. “Oh, no!” Cripto exclaimed. “Look where he’s going!”

“The Forbidden Zone?” TECHNO TIGER added in shock. “Nobody goes through there! At least, nobody who’s smart enough to avoid it.”

“We have no choice, you guys,” Crush replied. “We’re going in.”

“Uh, put a pin on that idea,” Cripto replied back, pointing at another squadron of goons. “Incoming!”

“Whoa!” Crush exclaimed, swerving left and right to avoid the goons. Cripto and T2 (“T2” was a nickname for TECHNO TIGER) took a laser pistol and fired shots at the goons as they dove to avoid the laser fire from their own fears. The yellow color made their laser fire easily distinguishable from the blue laser fire from my Patriotmobile, which helped take out a criminal T2 was having trouble eliminating from the battle. The crook landed in a trash can in an alley alongside a building.

“What a flathead!” Tom commented to himself.

“Yo, Leo; thanks for the help!” T2 called, waving to me.

“Anytime,” I replied as I turned to Tom. “How we doing over here?”

“Bendraqi’s headed for the Forbidden Zone, and SuperCat’s still fighting him on board the blimp.”

“Oh, bad; we have to get him out of there or he may not get out of it alive!”

“I don’t know, Leo; SuperCat’s virtually indestructible. The only thing that can harm him is criptonitroglycerite.”

“I hope Bendraqi’s not carrying any.”

Unfortunately, he was; Bendraqi pulled out the very source of damage that was the one thing SuperCat would be hurt from, and SuperCat promptly dropped to the floor. “Ugh!” he exclaimed. “Criptonitroglycerite!” He started to cough, and his suffering showed within a matter of minutes. “Can’t…hold…on…much…longer!” he stammered. “Must…keep…fighting!”

“What’s happening?” asked D.W. as he, Super Leo, and Super Tom flew back inside the blimp. “SuperCat’s in danger!”

“That right there,” said Super Leo, “is a huge amount of criptonitroglycerite. We’ve got to get it away from him, and fast!”

“Where does he normally get his strength from? I don’t believe I ever figured that out.”

“From the yellow sun of this solar system, where else? Super Tom and I can say the same about ourselves, even though we’re not from Caticon. Come on, now; let’s get a move on here and get that stuff away from him.”

D.W. charged in with a powerful punch and sent the criptonitroglycerite flying out the window. Since SuperCat was too faint to keep fighting, Super Leo carried him out of the blimp towards safety so he could recover. Meanwhile, Super Tom took command of the punching battle with Bendraqi, after proving the criptonitroglycerite had no effect on him.

Using his powers, Cripto created a large rocket blaster, then scored a direct hit that sent the blimp into a nosedive. “Better give up now,” Super Tom taunted after Bendraqi began to panic. “Your blimp’s going down!”

“Never!” Bendraqi screamed. “I will never surrender! There is just no way you can beat me! I am the great Bendraqi! I will prevail!”

“No you won’t; the defenders of Old Glory will!” Super Tom shot back. “You obviously have no respect for the values this country stands for!” He punched Bendraqi in the face, knocking the fiend unconscious, then grabbed the blimp’s controls and steered it so that the blimp was facing straightforward again. It still continued to go down in flames, however, so Super Tom, having to take Bendraqi with him, abandoned ship.

The blimp touched down with explosive results, prompting The Avenger to put the fire out with his freeze-blasts.

“Hate to see a blimp fall apart like that,” I spoke up. “I’m sure the scientific folks of this town would’ve put that to good use.”

“I agree,” Cripto replied over his communicator. “But what did Bendraqi have in mind? And why was he trying to scare us? It ain’t even Halloween!”

Super Tom transferred control of Bendraqi over to D.W. as he took off to find Super Leo and see how SuperCat was doing.

“It’s not over yet!” Bendraqi stuttered in a never-ending ramble of nonsense as soon as he regained consciousness. “I’ve got one more trick up my sleeve!” He activated the Beam’s laser that would’ve fried Crush’s Lionmobile to death, but the Beam sizzled out. Cripto activated his shield to protect the Lionmobile just in case.

“No, don’t falter on me now!” the angry boss continued to shout. “You retarded piece of junk! Fry these fools! Now! NOW!”

“Stop your complaining this instant!” I ordered. “Your Beam is out of commission, and so are you!”

“Not yet!” Bendraqi shot back. “I will win! I will prevail! I am the great Bendraqi! I will not let the Q4 go to waste! I will survive! I will come out on top!”

“Oh, brother!” Cripto sneered to himself. “When’s he ever going to learn?”

“You got me,” T2 replied. “The way I see it, it’s time for him to fly!”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I meant that if possible, we should send him to Alcatraz via air mail. I’ll have to chuck that idea; the blimp’s already grounded.”

“But we’re not!” The Avenger called. “We’ll do the delivery for you. Throw him up here!”

“Let go of me this instant, you insolent buffoons!” Bendraqi kept on screaming. “I’ll make you regret you ever heard of the invincible Alfred Coats Bendraqi! I will win! I will prevail! I…”

“Oh, shut up!” everyone shouted in unison as The Avenger and Grease hitched the angry villain back to Alcatraz.

The rest of us regrouped ourselves, leaving the blimp to rot in its biodegradable ways, and headed for the nearest Hardee’s™ to rest, but also eat dinner once we caught our breaths back. I first informed the employees as soon as we got there that the victory was won. Bands who felt like doing so struck up “The Stars and Stripes Forever” in the meantime, and I was more proud than ever to hear it. Yet I hated to hear that we suffered a casualty in the battle, because had Bendraqi not had possession of the criptonitroglycerite, SuperCat would’ve scored a technical knockout well ahead of time.

Having donned his alternate identity of Simon Corrineson again after fully recovering, SuperCat arrived with Super Leo and Super Tom. “You okay?” Cripto asked. “Looked to me like he was going to give you the boot. Not even those comic book villains could trump the acts of this crazy wacko!”

“You took quite a hit there, I heard,” T2 added.

“We thought you were finished,” Crush put in, “but, you know how bad wet fur smells.”

“No need to trouble yourselves over me,” SuperCat replied. “I wouldn’t have cared if this was the day I died, because the G-52 policy states that we serve the greatest good for the biggest possible amount of people. Have to admit, though, it would’ve been quite a funeral, but I don’t think today was the day I was to go down in a blaze of glory.”

“And even if it was,” I said, “I would see to it you would never be forgotten.”

“Oh, thanks,” SuperCat chuckled, “but I feel I’ve already earned that status of ‘legend.’”

Meanwhile, The Avenger and Grease had arrived at Alcatraz, with Bendraqi still in the clutches, struggling to get free so he could escape. “What’ll it be, Grease?” the Avenger asked. “Dunk or delivery?”

Both looked at each other with a snicker of determination in their face, and said to each other, “DUNK!” The Avenger let go of the hitch, and the two watched Bendraqi fall towards Alcatraz. “All right! Mega drop!” THE Avenger exclaimed.

“Mega belly-flop is more like it!” Grease added. The Avenger smiled as he flew back to where we were, and Grease followed suit after shouting at Bendraqi, “Play it cool, punk, and the judge might let you out of the cooler soon on good behavior. Like, say, 750 years from now!” He snickered at his own joke and turned around to head for home.

Both looked back in time to watch Bendraqi land right smack in the heart of Alcatraz, and naturally, there were stars circling his head. He swore revenge, and kept on screaming, but neither hero paid attention to him. They flew back to their homes, high-fived one another, added and they donned their normal identities of Rat Sult (The Avenger) and Daniel (“Danny”) Claxton (Grease).

“Excellent!” Daniel smiled. “That creep’s in prison! We’re going to have to tell Leo about this.”

“Where’s he at?”

“I don’t know, but I can find out.” Daniel beeped for me and I told him where we were. By now, it was almost 10 p.m., but since this particular Hardee’s™ was open 24 hours, and it was Friday night, the employees were more than glad to see our business. Naturally, the first thing Rat and Daniel did was inform the rest of us of the news.

“Hey, bang it to me, brother!” T2 added as he banged Rat’s knuckle, then Daniels’s. Each then high-fived Crush and Cripto before turning towards me. I saluted them, then said, “Keep up the good fight, you two; you’ll be racking up those victories in no time!”

“We will, Leo!” Rat promised. Then he turned to SuperCat. “Are you all right? Heard Bendraqi almost tied you up by the tail.”

“Oh, you don’t have to worry over me,” SuperCat replied, stating the policy once again. “And besides, I think the G-52 organization can carry on without me.”

“Yeah, but who’d take your position?”

“Probably Leo. He’s got the skills for such a position.”

“Thanks for the compliment,” I said, “but I’m not ready for your job just yet. Besides, my music gets in the way.”

The conversation continued throughout the meal, although we tuned in to a Supercross motorcycle race that was playing right now. It was a great night to celebrate both the victory for the G-52s and what seemed like the total defeat of Bendraqi, even though it wasn’t, as the Wildcat Blitz was won on the principles of truth, justice, and the American way.

And you can be rest assured, as I close right now, that there were more battles to come, and that I, Leo the Patriotic Lion, and my super friends would always be the first to charge into battle when the time was right, and we would never cease to be a force of freedom. And remember, never take “The Stars and Stripes Forever” or any Sousa march for granted! Those marches define who America is and the morals and values she stands for!

THE END