By Bill Taylor
NOTE: This is a total work of fan fiction. I have no rights over these characters and I’m certainly not getting any money off this story. The Thundercats are all trademarks of Rankin-Bass entertainment, LORIMAR Television, the late Ted Wolf, and a whole bunch of other stuff. It has no connection to the show in anyway, shape or form. Words in italics represent Lion-O’s thoughts or other people’s thoughts.
It was an average morning. Lion-O was up first for morning watch. The 45-year- old-Panthro was working out in his room. Snarf was visiting Snarfer at the Tower of Omens to give him some cooking tips and help educate him on the heritage of the proud species known as Snarfs. Tygra was in cleaning himself up for the day while his 32-year-old Cheetara slept in his bed, resting from the night before. As Tygra opened his door to go out, Cheetara groggily called to him.
“Where are you going?”
“To see how things are going this morning.”
“Lion-O’s on watch. Come back to bed.”
“That’s exactly why I have to check,” Tygra said flatly.
“Lion-O’s a big boy now. He can take care of things. Come back to bed.”
“I just want to make sure.”
“Oh, all right,” Cheetara pouted, rolling over, pulling the blanket over her head. “Just don’t expect me to still be here when you get back.”
Tygra blew Cheetara a kiss and closed the door. The 36-year-old tiger’s heart begged him to listen to her, but a guilty conscience kept demanding him to go check on Lion-O. Only then, would his soul be able to rest. Lion-O was big, no argument there, but he could be hapless and was as prone to getting himself in trouble as the kids were. Perhaps just peg down from them.
Lion-O was up with the kittens, Wilykit and Wilykat, in the control room. There was not much going on, so he agreed to play a little ball with them. They stood in a large triangle, throwing an old volleyball back and forth that had survived the trip from Thundera to 3rd Earth. No team and no score, all they had to do was keep the pace going, seeing which one of them broke rhythm. Lion-O threw it to Kit, and Kit threw it to Kat, and Kat threw it back to Lion-O.
“Hey Lion-O,” yelled Wilykat, “don’t throw the ball so hard! You’ll break it!”
“I’m throwing it as lightly as I can, Kat,” Lion-O laughed. “Can I help it I was cursed with big muscles?”
“Better brains than brawn, Lion-O!”
“Even better brain’s and brawn, Wilykat!” laughed Wilykit.
“Oh sure, take his side!”
“Just making a point!”
“Maybe you haven’t noticed Lion-O, but Kit has a little crush on you!” Wilykat slandered.
“I do not!” Wilykit protested.
“Oh don’t embarrass yourself! You know you want to marry him and be his queen!”
“You’re sick, Wilykat! By the time I’m old enough to marry, he’ll be an old man!”
Lion-O just stood there with the ball and laughed at the kids as they argued. But when it looked like they were about to get up in each other’s faces, he yelled, “Think fast!” and threw the ball the Wilykat.
“Lion-O broke first!”
“Lion-O broke what first?” They turned to see Tygra enter the doorway. “Lion-O, shouldn’t you be watching the monitors?”
“I checked them all already. There’s nothing going on out there, Tygra. For once, there’s harmony.”
“Harmony doesn’t last long on 3rd Earth,” Tygra said sternly. “We’ve always got to be on the look out.”
“Aw, let up Tygra,” moaned Kat.
“Yeah! It’s a beautiful morning and nothing’s happening! Enjoy it for once!” encouraged Wilykit.
“They’ve got a point, Tygra,” Lion-O grinned. “Don’t be such an old tiger.”
“Only if you agree to stop acting like a young lion who shirks responsibilities.” Tygra sighed. Sometimes, he felt Lion-O hadn’t grown up at all and was still the wild youngster he was when they left Thundera. Tygra tried to get some sense into his head, but it wasn’t easy. Lion-O had missed so much in his capsule only time would tell if he truly became a man not only in body but also in mind and spirit.
The monitor went off. Something was happening. They all rushed to the console, but Tygra was the one who picked up the message. “Cat’s Lair. What’s the-”
“We’re under attack here!” Snarf screamed over the other line. “We’ve got both mutants and Lunatacs attacking the Tower of Omens!”
“Mutants and Lunatacs?” Tygra repeated, stunned.
“They’re working together?” Lion-O asked in disbelief. “As allies?”
“That’s the look of it!” Snarfer bursted onto the screen shoving his uncle aside. “The other Thundercats are outside fighting, but we need you here fast cause we’re not gonna-” The line went dead.
“Snarf? Snarfer? Tygra, get the Panthro and Cheetara, and have them meet me in the Thundertank!”
“Right!” Tygra ran off to do as Lion-O ordered, with his lord unintentionally following but going in a much different direction. Tygra gave Lion-O credit, he could think fast when he had to.
“Wait for us, Lion-O!” yelled Wilykit.”
“You two stay here and guard the lair!” Lion-O yelled over his shoulder as he disappeared down the hall. The kittens stopped, knowing it was futile to try and change his mind.
A few minutes later, the kittens watched the adult Thundercats disappear from the view screen in the tank feeling a surge of aggravation. They knew Lion-O was just looking out for them by making them stay to guard the lair, but he never let them come with them to see the action.
“I can’t believe I’m actually working with mutants!” Chilla yelled while aiming her ice at the Thunderstrike with a sound of disgust, as though it was something violating.
“This is most sad indeed!” yelled Tug-Mug over the radio from the Lunatacker.
“We our just actors playing our parts,” Red Eye said, trying to hide his own unhappiness. “If our new friend comes through, then this will all be worth it!” yelled Red Eye, aiming his cannons at the tower, which was now smoking.
“Slythe, it’s its degrading working with these Lunatacs!” sneered Jackalman as he made his passes at the Tower in his sky cutter, trying not to be hit by the Lunatacker or by the Thunderstrike.
“Yessss, Jackalman, but we musssst remember our goal!” Slythe replied over the radio of the nose diver. “Monkian, Vulture Man, give Jackalman some cover fire, yessss.”
“HOO-HOO, you’ve got it, Slythe!” Monkian hooted over the radio of his Sky Cutter.
“For the goal!” Vulture Man cackled over the radio, trying to hide his disgruntlement at the fact that he had sold out his dignity to work with Lunatacs.
Vulture Man and Monkian fired on the Thunderstrike, and eventually managed to drive it away from the tower and pursued it. How blind Lynx-O flew the thing was beyond them, and why Bengali and Pumyra let him fly it was even further beyond them. They tried not to think about it. They just kept firing.
“This is getting to be more than we can handle!” Pumyra observed from her pod as Vulture Man and Monkian came after them.
“Where’s the damn cavalry?!” Bengali growled over his intercom.
“They’re coming! I can hear it!” Lynx-O responded just before dodging another energy blast.
“The question is will we still be here when they arrive?” Pumyra asked, trying to sound calm despite her own growing fear.
“Snarf and Snarfer can’t hold down the tower much longer!” yelled Bengali. “And we’re running out of gas! Lynx-O, let us detach our pods, we’ll split up! They can’t follow all three of us!”
“Normally, Bengali, I’d say no,” Lynx-O replied, “but at the moment, we’ve no other alternative. Detach, now!” Lynx-O pressed the buttons and released Bengali and Pumyra’s pods, letting them fly off in their own direction.
“They’re splitting up, Vulture Man! HOO-HOO!”
“CAW! Damn them! Monkian, you go after Bengali and Pumyra I’ll take care of that old geezer Lynx-O! CAW!”
Monkian hooted his approving response and flew after the younger Thundercats and allowed Vulture Man to take on Lynx-O.
“How long till we reach the Tower, Panthro?” Tygra asked.
“Just two more miles!” Panthro said. “We’re almost there!”
“We’ve got to hurry Panthro! Let’s push your baby to the max!” Lion-O yelled from the armored compartment. “I don’t think they’ll be able to hold out a lot longer!”
“Did the sword show you that, Lion-O?” Cheetara asked.
“No, it’s just a feeling I’ve got! Now push it!”
The Thundercats at the Tower of Omens were almost at the end of their rope. Vulture Man was still chasing Lynx-O. Bengali and Pumyra had managed to crash Monkian’s Sky Cutter, but Chilla had downed them with an arctic ice blast. They both crashed in what they called the tower’s front lawn, trying to hold the Lunatacker at bay using their crashed pods as a blockade between them and the Lunatacker.
Bengali shot beams from his hammer, but they weren’t strong enough to cut through the thick armor. Then he and Pumyra saw that Slythe was coming at them with the nose diver, shooting all the way.
“We’re stuck between a rock and a hard place!” noted Pumyra, hurling a gas pellet at Chilla who hovered above them, trying to bring them out with extreme cold. The pellet exploded right in Chilla’s face, covering her with a white substance known to help with bad ice.
“Rock salt!” Chilla gagged as she fell to the desert ground. She rolled out of the way just in time to avoid being run over by her own comrades.
“That’s one, now what about him?” asked Bengali, observing Slythe as he approached.
“Prepare to bite the dusssst in the wind, Thundercat! Yessss!” sung Slythe as he closed in on the Siberian blacksmith.
Tug-Mug jumped out of the front hatch of the Lunatacker and fired a green beam at their crashed pods. Glowing green, the pods began to float into the air, lighter than a feather. “Get ready to feel the weight of the world on your shoulders, Thundercats!” laughed Tug-Mug as he shot another green blast at them. Bengali and Pumyra jumped out of the way just in time to let Tug-Mug hit Slythe, who hit the ground like a rock.
“Damn you Tug-Mug! Yessss!”
“OOPS. My bad! Now it’s your turn!” Tug-Mug snickered before shooting at Bengali, but the black smith was ready for him. Bengali raised his hammer and fired a blue beam to hit Tug-Mug’s green beam just in time. Bengali and Tug-Mug held each other in a stand off locked in a battle of wills, for a moment, one beam would slightly over take the other, but then it would recede.
Red Eye saw the situation and decided he would help, tired of just sitting back and letting machines do all the work for him. Red Eye was about to throw his discus at Bengali when smoke suddenly exploded in front of him. It didn’t faze him, but it caught him off guard and he turned to see Pumyra.
“Don’t you know it’s poor manners to ignore a lady?”
“He might, but I’ll acknowledge a lady any day of the week!”
Pumyra looked above her and saw Jackalman swooping over her with his sky cutter, firing. Jackalman was by no means a poor shot, but Pumyra was too fast and agile for him to hit her. Red Eye tried hurling one of his discs at her again, but she leapt out of the way, and it eventually flew up and smacked right into Jackalman’s engine. Jackalman screamed his trademark scream of cowardice as he jumped out of his burning sky cutter, allowing it to fly wildly and finally head on a collision course for the Lunatacker. Red Eye jumped back into the driver’s seat and pulled back just as Chilla was climbing onto the side and managed not to be hit by the falling weapon. Tug-Mug, caught off guard by the sudden back motion, fell from his place and spring boarded up through the air and kept bouncing around, unable to stop himself and get a clear shot at Bengali.
Bengali, however, was still having his own problems and Pumyra had the misfortune to be apart of it. The two found themselves ganged up by mutants and Lunatacs. Jackalman had survived his fall, Slythe had finally broken out of Tug-Mug’s gravity pull, Chilla had recovered somewhat from the rock salt, and Monkian had made his way towards them on foot, having survived the crash of his own sky cutter.
“Suggestions?” he whispered nervously to his girlfriend as they backed up.
“Be afraid. Be very afraid.”
“You wouldn’t happen to have an A-bomb in there with all those gas pellets, would you?”
Then the roar of a familiar engine was heard. Bengali and Pumyra looked over their shoulders and saw something coming in from the distance, big, silver, and chewing up a lot of dust. It was the Thundertank.
Tug-Mug landed in front of their view of the tank. He had finally stopped bouncing. “We’ve got you now, Thundercats! There’s no place to run! Just give up!”
“You’re finisssshed! Yessss!”
“It’s going to be a cold day in Hell for you two!”
“If you see what we mean!”
“HOO-HOO! We’re going to pound you flat like pancakes!”
“NYEHEHEHEHE! Victory is ours!”
“Any last words?” Tug-Mug asked. Bengali and Pumyra looked at each other, and gave each other a wink.
“As a matter of fact we, do.” Pumyra grinned. “Road,”
“And kill,” finished Bengali.
“Road and kill? What kind of last words are those?”
“You’re about to find out!”
“Huh?” Tug-Mug looked behind him, and being too late to shoot his gravity cannon, threw his arms up to shield his face. “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
Bengali and Pumyra leapt to opposite sides of the battlefield as the Thundertank ran into Tug-Mug and sent him flying, and bouncing off into who knows where. The Thundertank then mowed through the Lunatacs and mutants. Lion-O leapt out of the armored cargo bay with the Sword of Omens drawn. “HO!” he said, shooting out beams of light to send the mixed up bunch of villains into a fray of confusion, with Cheetara backing him up with the cannon on the Thundertank.
“Look! Look! Uncle Snarf! Look! Out the window! It’s Lion-O! He’s here! He made it! We’re saved!” Snarfer hopped up and down, pointing out the window to show his uncle, who smiled with approval.
“That’s my boy!”
Panthro, Cheetara, and Tygra were handling Slythe, Monkian, and Jackalman with considerable ease, while Pumyra handled Chilla, and Lion-O and Bengali took on Red Eye.
Chilla was not back at full strength yet, but she was giving Pumyra considerable trouble, taking her on an up, close, and personal battle. “I’ll spoil those good looks!” Chilla screeched, clawing at Pumyra’s face. Pumyra remembered Bengali once showing off, slamming his fist hard and solid into a bag, keeping his fist as solid as a rock and his arm as straight as a branch. She decided to apply it to Chilla, slamming her own fist into the ice mistress’ face as hard as she could. Remembering that bit of masculine showing off actually came in handy.
Bengali and Lion-O were keeping Red Eye at bay, on opposite sides, either zapping his discs as he threw them or physically hitting them with their sword or hammer. They both tried to zap fast enough to actually shoot at Red Eye, but he was in good form today.
Lion-O was hitting the discs with no particular care, sending them flying any which way there was. Some of it went back at Red Eye, some of it drifted over towards the others who were still fighting the mutants.
“Watch you’re hitting those discs, Lion-O!” Panthro roared, blocking a blow from Slythe. “You might kill one of us!” Lion-O did not acknowledge that he had heard he just kept hitting the discs. “Lion-O! Did you hear what I said?! Watch it with those things!” Lion-O still did not respond. He was too far into battle now to pay attention to anything but his target, Red Eye.
Pumyra had taken Chilla from behind, and now had her in tight lock. Chilla tried to break free, but was still too weak from the rock salt. She happened to glance over and saw Lion-O carelessly hitting the discs and one that he deflected was heading right towards her. In a rush of adrenalin, Chilla managed to shift her weight and threw Pumyra around, not breaking her grip, but now having her in a position that she was a Thundercat shield, to cover her own hide.
Pumyra felt hot metal jam itself into her back, cutting and burning through her flesh and making her blood boil. Screaming in pain and shock, Pumyra let go of Chilla and fell face first onto the ground.
“Pumyra!” Bengali growled as he saw her fall and that something had stabbed her. Before thinking twice, Bengali ran for her, pushing his legs as hard as he could, locked in on her and blocking out all else.
“Bengali! Come back here!” roared Lion-O, deflecting another of Red Eye’s discs. Wasting no time, Red Eye hurled a disc at Bengali, but Lion-O managed to shoot it. The blast set out a white light that Red Eye’s eyes could not handle
“ARGH! Damn! White out! Can’t see anything!”
“HO!” Lion-O shot out another beam from the sword, this time, at Red Eye. After the huge form of a barbecued Red Eye fell to the ground, Lion-O rushed over to Bengali, but before he could say anything, he saw that Bengali was trying to pull something out of Pumyra’s back. Shrapnel. From one of the discs Lion-O had deflected. This was where it landed. “Oh God… what have I done?”
“Help me!” growled Bengali. “Help me, damn it! Help her!”
“Lion-O? Pumyra! Shit!” Panthro picked Slythe up over his head and threw him forward, head first into the Lunatacker. Slythe left an impression on the tank’s hull as he banged off of it. “Let’s put this fight up a not, cause Pumyra’s been injured!”
“Right ahead of you, Panthro!” Cheetara went into a whirlwind on Jackalman, cannon balling him in the stomach and hitting him like lightening all over with her staff.
“Consider it done!” Tygra landed a solid blow on Monkian’s jaw that knocked the simian down and had him whimpering.
“Retreat!” Chilla yelled. “Retreat!” Chilla rushed over to Red Eye and tried to drag him over to the Lunatacker. Monkian rushed over and started helping her, with some unexpected assistance from Jackalman and a half dazed Slythe. The villains either crawled into the Lunatacker or inside it as Chilla revved up its engine and drove off.
Cheetara, Panthro, and Tygra ran to Pumyra’s side, where Lion-O was trying to slowly pull out the shrapnel and Bengali kept her still. Panthro grabbed Lion-O by his red mane and yanked him aside.
“Outta the way Lion-O! You’ve helped Pumyra enough for one day!” Panthro knelt down where Lion-O had been and slowly finished in taking out the shrapnel.
“What happened?” Cheetara asked.
“Shrapnel!” answered an angry Panthro. “Courtesy of Lion-O deflecting it from Red Eye!” Lion-O looked away guiltily. Bengali didn’t notice.
“Who cares?!” Bengali growled. “We’ve got to get her back to the tower! Cheetara, Pumyra’s got medical supplies in the pods up ahead! We’ll need them!”
“Right ahead of you, Bengali!” Cheetara yelled racing ahead towards the pods that had crashed after Tug-Mug’s departure. Bengali picked up Pumyra, cradling her in his arms, being as gentle and easy as he could, paying no mind to the dusty blood that he got on his clothes and started running ahead.
Lion-O stood up and Panthro took him by the throat. “God damn it Lion-O! I told you to watch where you were hitting those things! Weren’t you paying any attention to what you were doing or what I was saying?!” Lion-O tried to force an explanation out of his throat, but Panthro’s grip was too tight.
Tygra grabbed Panthro by the shoulder and pulled him away. “Save it, Panthro! We’ve got to help Pumyra!” Panthro looked from Lion-O to Tygra and then back, and let go of his grip with a growl. The three Thundercats ran after Bengali.
Lynx-O was landing what was left of the Thunderstrike down by the tower when the cats got to the entrance after having finally managed to shake off Vulture Man. It was a good thing too, because he knew a little bit about medicine himself. He started treating Pumyra for her injury, with the others assisting him. Tension ran high in the following hours. Lion-O felt guilty about the whole thing, which he knew to be his fault. If he hadn’t been so caught up in fighting Red Eye, Pumyra wouldn’t be in her coma. Panthro explained everything in the hours that followed. Cheetara and Tygra were not happy.
“What the Hell were you thinking?!” demanded Cheetara.
“If you were half them man you claimed to be, you wouldn’t have allowed this to happen!” accused Tygra.
“Take a good look at what your carelessness cost us! What it’s costing Bengali! What it’s going to cost Pumyra!” Panthro yelled.
Bengali just didn’t pay any attention to what went on around Lion-O at all. He was too worried about Pumyra, and for some reason, Lion-O was happy that Bengali was too concerned to yell at him, because any more guilt and he have fallen to the ground. Nothing they said or did to him could possibly define how he felt or equal the guilt and shame he was feeling. If Pumyra died, he would never forgive himself. He would carry it for the rest of his life, and never let go of it, and never let anyone else forgive him either.
“Her pulse is fading,” Lynx-O said sadly. “I don’t think she’ll make it.”
“NO! Pumyra!” Bengali yelled defiantly.
Lion-O stood and watched helpless as Bengali sat beside Pumyra, holding her hand, his eyes fixated on her, begging her not to leave him.
I have to do something. Lion-O thought. I have to save her, but how? What can I- wait a minute… the sword! The Sword of Omens! It saved Lynx-O, it had better save Pumyra!
Lion-O took the sword out of the claw shield and raised it high with one hand. The others watched as it started to glow. Lynx-O listened attentively.
“Eye of Thundera, I, Lord Lion-O, command you to heal Pumyra!” The Eye of Thundera came to life, glowing a bright red. The Thundercat symbol shot itself down from Pumyra and connected with the symbol on her chest. Pumyra was engulfed in a red light. When the red light faded, her eyes opened, glowing yellow for ten seconds. Lion-O put the sword back in the claw shield and smiled.
Thank
you Jaga.
“Pumyra?”
Pumyra stretched as much as she could, till her still battered body hurt. She yawned and groaned as she returned to the world of which she had been hanging on to by only a mere thread. “My head…”
“Pumyra!”
“Bengali? What’s all this fuss about?”
“I thought you were- you were so close to the end there, I almost thought you wouldn’t make it.” Bengali felt tears of joy beginning to form in his eyes. Pumyra reached up and scratched his chin.
“You don’t have that kind of luck,” she teased. “Red Eye didn’t finish the job.”
“Hey, I was seriously worried about you over here!” Bengali protested.
“I’m serious too.”
Bengali took hold of her hand and held it for a few minutes, soaking in the joy and relief of Pumyra’s return to life. The other Thundercats shared a sigh of relief. A few minutes passed by in which no one spoke, they only stood. Till finally, Lion-O felt he had to speak.
“Pumyra,” Lion-O interrupted the moment. “I have to make an apology.”
“For what?”
“It’s my fault you were in that coma. That shrapnel was a fragment from one of Red Eye’s discs that I deflected. I just didn’t see where it was going. I should’ve paid more attention, and this wouldn’t have happened. I’m sorry.”
“Sorry? Sorry?!” exclaimed Panthro. “Is that all you have to say for yourself, you cocky cub? All you can say is that you’re sorry?” Before Lion-O had a chance to answer, Panthro made his move and rammed 250 lbs of solid anger into Lion-O’s stomach, unleashing tension that had been brewing not only himself but in the other Thundercats as well. Lion-O, caught off guard by Panthro’s attack, fell back into a corner, clutching his stomach.
“Panthro…” Lion-O breathed, still clutching his stomach. “Wait a second…”
“Wait for what, you stupid over grown child?” Cheetara cut in with a dirty look. “Do you have any idea of how close Pumyra came to biting the dust because of you?”
“Wait a second, I’m not exactly happy about what happened myself-”
“Then you should have paid more attention to went on around you!” accused Tygra, armed with his own dirty look. “Haven’t you learned anything at all these last few years? Haven’t you learned that there’s more to being Lord of the Thundercats then just waving that sword around? We’ve been more than patient with you, and yet you still act like some impulsive child!”
“And that’s all you’ll ever be if you don’t get your act together!” yelled an angry Panthro. “If you can’t pay attention to what happens to your own people, then to Hell with you cause you have no business trying to be the Lord of the Thundercats!”
“But-”
“No buts about it, boy!” Cheetara cut Lion-O off. “Pumyra could’ve died! Can’t you get that through your thick skull?”
“Why don’t you grow up for God’s sake?” asked Tygra.
For a moment, no one said anything. Lion-O wanted to protest, defend himself, but he could not find the voice for it. He just looked down at the floor, trying to escape the dirty looks of Cheetara, Tygra, and Panthro, his friends and mentors for so many years who for a few minutes, had quickly become his greatest enemies, greater than Mumm-Ra perhaps. Bengali, Pumyra, and the twins said nothing. They just stared, amazed they’re friends would damn their leader in such fashion. After ten minutes perhaps, Panthro finally said, “Let’s get out of here.”
They filed out one by one, leaving only Bengali, Lion-O, and Pumyra in the room.
Back at the lair, Wilykit and Wilykat were eating dinner in the kitchen, or as close as they could come to it. They simply reheated some of the spaghetti from the night before.
“We always get left behind!” complained Wilykat. “I’ll bet we missed some really cool stuff today!”
“Yeah! One of these days,” Wilykit stammered. “They’re gonna be sorry they didn’t take us with them!”
“That’s right, kitten,” chuckled an evil and familiar voice, accompanied by a looming, menacing shadow. “And that day is today!”
Cheetara felt a strange pain go off in her head. She grabbed the sides of her skull, trying to apply pressure to relieve the pain of her sixth sense warning her of danger. Snarf started yelling.
“Panthro! Stop the tank! Something’s wrong with Cheetara! Stop the tank!”
“No! Keep going! We have to get to the lair now!” Despite Cheetara’s protesting, Panthro stopped the Thundertank and opened up the hood. Cheetara wobbled up, and Tygra caught her, trying to give her support.
“No! Why have we stopped?”
“You’re in pain, Cheetara!” Tygra explained. “That’s why we stopped.”
“Tygra- it’s my sixth sense! Wilykit and Wilykat are in danger! At the lair- someone is- AGHH!”
Tygra jumped from his seat and into the back, helping Cheetara sit down. “You heard her Panthro! To the Lair!”
“Right! Go!” Panthro revved the engine back, closed the gates on the tank and drove forward.
Sky Tomb…
“Then, those other Thundercats showed up and-”
“And whipped your asses!” Luna finished for Tug-Mug.
“So you failed?” inquired Alluro, who had not taken part in the attack.
“In other wordsssss, yessss.” Slythe replied. Alluro and Luna looked at each other and smirked.
“Excellent.” All the villains in the room, Lunatacs and mutants alike, began laughing maniacally, knowing what was next what fate would befall the Thundercats.
When the Thundertank pulled up to the Cat’s Lair, nothing seemed to be wrong on the outside. It was the inside that they were worried about. Rushing inside, everything they saw seemed to have been damaged in one way or another. The walls were cracked, the stairway demolished, every room had been ransacked, and the control room was a mess of computer chips and keyboards.
“Where are they?” Panthro asked. Cheetara paused and concentrated, and pin pointed them.
“The kitchen!”
They all rushed down to the kitchen, and found the floor to be swamped with pots and pans, broken plates, forks, spoons, knives, cracked glasses, and all the drawers and cabinets were torn apart as well. There was evidence of blood here and there as well.
“Are we too late?” Tygra asked.
“No! They’re still alive, but- no!” Cheetara started frantically digging through the mess on the floor. Tygra joined her five seconds flat, and Panthro took only six. After a few minutes of scavenging, turning over and finding only disappointment, they found Wilykit and Wilykat, bruised and bleeding, but alive. Cheetara carried Wilykit and Tygra carried Wilykat down to the infirmary, but that was demolished as well. Panthro brought in the first aid kits from the Thundertank. They proved to be enough, though enough just wasn’t comforting.
Wilykit and Wilykat eventually woke up and explained what happened.
“It was Grune,” a teary eyed and almost escatic Wilykit said. “He broke into the lair. And we… and we…” Wilykit started crying. Cheetara brushed the tears away from her eyes and held her as close as she could without applying pressure that would cause pain on her injuries.
“We-we tried to fight him off…” said Wilykat, who was in no better condition than his sister. “Really, we did try. But he… he was just too big… too strong… oh god, I wish Lion-O was here.”
That’s when it hit Snarf that Lion-O had not come back. “Hey wait! Oh crud, I must be getting senile! Lion-O’s not even around!”
“He didn’t come back with us? He must still be at the Tower of Omens,” Cheetara believed.
“Well, let’s go get him, SNYARF, SNYARF! With Grune running around out there on the loose, we’ve gotta to have Lion-O!”
“It’s too late to go back to the Tower, and we’re too low on Thundrillium,” said Panthro.
“And our equipment is too smashed up to make any calls,” noted Tygra. “We’ll have to get him later.”
“Well, what do we do in the meantime?” asked Snarf.
“Yeah? What do we do?” asked Wilykit.
Tygra knelt down in front of the two kids trying to smile his reassuring smile that everything would be all right smile. “It’s too dangerous around here for you two right now, we’ll take you to the Berbil village, and you can get some rest there. Then we’ll come back here and get some rest ourselves and start repairing the lair.”
Tygra had not discussed this with Cheetara or Panthro, but they didn’t argue, as there was nothing else to do and Tygra’s ideas and plans were usually sound.
Over the next several days that followed, Tygra, Cheetara, and Panthro worked with little to no rest while rebuilding the lair. Wilykit and Wilykat rested in the Berbil village. The injuries were not life threatening, so they could come back and get them in a few days. Snarf stayed with the adult Thundercats and provided them with the only breaks they had by bringing them breakfast, lunch and dinner at the anointed time. Snarf would have preferred to have staid with Wilykit and Wilykat, but at the moment, he was needed in the lair, for better or worse, and he was determined to help.
On the seventh day, the day that became an unofficial rest day somewhere half way through, the communication equipment was finally repaired and they were able to patch a call through to the Tower of Omens.
“Tygra calling Tower of Omens, Tygra calling Tower of Omens, please respond.”
“Bengali responding. Come back.”
“Where is Lion-O? I need to talk to him.”
“You mean he’s still not back yet?” Bengali asked.
“Not back yet?” Tygra’s mouth dropped. “What’s going on? Is this some kind of joke? We’ve got real problems here!”
“If it is a joke, I’m not in on it,” Bengali replied flatly.
“Where the Hell is Lion-O?!” Tygra demanded.
“I don’t know. He hung out here for a couple of days after you guys left and helped fix some up stuff. Actually, he fixed most of our stuff up for us. After maybe four or five days, he was gone.”
“Gone?”
“Yup. I thought he had gone back to your place on foot during the night.”
“On foot?”
“Yeah, I figured on foot, since the Thunder-Strike was still in the garage.”
“He didn’t say anything about this to you? Not even a posted note?”
“Nope. What’s going on?”
“Grune attacked the lair while we were away helping you. Wilykit and Wilykat are all right, but we’ve only just now gotten our communication equipment repaired. And we’ve been at this for six or seven days.”
“That long? Hmm… this is bad. Alright, I’ll give you a call if I hear from Lion-O or if I see anything suspicious.”
“Thanks Bengali. Tygra out.”
A few more days passed and still there was no show of Lion-O. The lair was back to 75% operation, but there was still no Lion-O.
“He’s still not back yet?” Panthro asked in disbelief.
“Bengali said he left the Tower a few nights ago by himself. He should have been back by now!”
“Maybe he doesn’t want to come back.”
“What, Cheetara?” Tygra asked, staring his other half in the eye.
“Well, do you suppose maybe we were too hard on him?”
“Not likely,” Panthro cut in. “Lion-O’s got to learn to control himself. He’s got to learn to pay attention to the things around him. In short, he needs to grow up.”
Tygra said nothing. Cheetara laughed. “Oh really? I seem to remember a certain panther who was rather impulsive when he was about as young as Lion-O.”
“That maybe true, but I never got anyone almost killed.”
“None the less, Lion-O should have returned,” insisted Tygra.
“Well, he can’t be in trouble,” said Cheetara. “If he was, he would have called us.”
“Unless- nah.” Panthro stood up from his control consul and cracked his back. “Let’s start up the Thundertank and go looking for him.”
“Good idea. Snarf, stay here and-”
“No! I’ve gotta come! I gotta make sure Lion-O’s okay!”
“Snarf-”
“Don’t argue with him Tygra. Just let him come along.”
The foursome drove through the thick forests looking for some sign of Lion-O, trying to figure out what had become of him. They may have been cruel, but he should’ve been over it by this time. After a few hours, two diminutive forms jumped down from the trees. Warrior Maidens. Queen Willa and her sister, Nayda.
“Willa, Nayda,” Tygra greeted. “What stops you by this way?”
“Have you seen Lion-O by any chance?” Cheetara asked.
“Looking for Lion-O? That’s what we figured you were out here for,” said Nayda.
“We caught him in one of our traps this morning,” Willa explained.
“By accident, of course,” Nayda added. “He told us about what happened a few days ago and quite vividly.”
The Thundercats rolled their eyes despairingly.
“Not that you all don’t have a right to be mad, its just that he has feelings too.”
“I tried talking to him, sharing with him my own problems as Queen of the Warrior Maidens, but I don’t think it helped much,” added Willa.
“He must be depressed if talking to a fellow leader won’t cheer him up or at least boost his ego a little bit.”
Willa and Nayda lead the Thundercats on foot a few yards away to where Lion-O had supplanted himself for the time being.
“We followed him for a while, until he came here and… and…”
“And what?”
“Well, he’s just been sitting there by the river all day, eating squirrels that he caught earlier.”
“He seems stable right now, though the slightest thing could set him off.” Willa stood in the way of the tiger, panther, and cheetah, as they were about to approach their lord. “You’re not going to talk to him again, are you?” The Thundercats rolled their eyes again.
“We just need a moment with him,” said Cheetara. “To sort things out.”
“Yes. It’s not easy to be a leader, and Lion-O’s certainly not an exception.”
“That mind and personality of his is actually very fragile. To be handled with care only.” Tygra lead Panthro and Cheetara to Lion-O’s spot, feeling that he should be the one in front and to be the one who should do most of the talking.
Lion-O continued eating his squirrel. He liked this river spot he had picked out. It was quiet and disconnected from anything else and anyone else. He needed to be alone right now and believed he was until he heard a stick snap behind him under someone’s foot. On reflex, Lion-O dropped the squirrel out of his mouth and tried to pull out his sword, but the sword wouldn’t draw. He strapped the shield on instead, stood up and spun around. He nearly hit Panthro, Cheetara, and Tygra, who ducked or moved back at the right time.
“Hey!” shouted Panthro.
“Take it easy, Lion-O!” yelled Tygra. “Its only us!”
Lion-O identified his former friends, and put the claw back on his belt. “Oh, its you three.” He had an angry, dirty look of his own now. He turned and walked away from them a few feet, so as not to see them or be close to them. “What do you want?” he asked with uncharacteristic malice that caught the other three off guard.
“Lion-O, we’ve come to talk to you,” replied Tygra. “Maybe we owe you an apology-”
Lion-O turned around and eyed the architect with evil eyes that would have stopped even Mumm-Ra dead in his tracks. “Oh yeah?” he asked. “Well you can forget it. Just forget it!” He eyed Panthro. “To Hell with me, huh? To Hell with you! To Hell with all of you, how do you like that?!”
They expected Lion-O to be disgruntled, but not this disgruntled.
“Lion-O,” Tygra said in his usual calm manner, “just calm down, come back to the lair, and we’ll talk about all of this.”
“Why? So you can ridicule me? Patronize me? Humiliate me and break me down to the level of a sub-creature?” Lion-O turned away and stalked off, trying to get as far away from these so called friends and find sanctuary somewhere else when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
“Lion-O, listen to Tygra,” said the familiar voice of Cheetara. “He’s just trying help-”
Lion-O slapped her hand away rather hard and jumped back from her, not wanting to be within ten yards of her. Cheetara rubbed her hand, surprised that Lion-O would actually strike at her. “I expected you to side with Tygra!” he accused, pointing his finger at her.
Tygra and Panthro were catching up. Tygra came up right behind Cheetara and stood in front of her defensively, with a rather angry look on his face. “Don’t talk to her like that!” he warned.
“Or what, little man?” Lion-O asked. “You’ll whip me? Go ahead and try! I’ll shove that precious whip of yours right up your striped ass where it belongs!”
“Lion-O, listen to me! You’re not thinking clearly!”
“I’ll think what I want! I don’t need some drug addict architect to tell me what to think!” There was no stopping him now. “You think you’re all so great! You brag about how smart you are, how fast you are, how strong you are! So smart you need to eat hallucinogenic fruit and cling to magic rocks to feel good about yourself! So fast you can’t run for more than five minutes before collapsing like a child with asthma! So strong you can’t even open a stupid bottle of aspirin! You all think you can do a better job of being Lord of the Thundercats, then be my guest to go ahead and try because I quit!”
“Wait a second! Think about what you’re saying!”
“I know what I’m saying! I’ve tried my best to be this great lord you all expected me to be, and if my best isn’t good enough for you, if it isn’t up to your satisfaction, then damn you all to Hell, along with your Cat’s Lair, your Thundertank, and your Code of Thundera!” Lion-O turned away and hauled off again. Panthro ran after him and managed to grab Lion-O’s shoulder.
“Now wait just a damn second!”
Lion-O spun around and, with all his might and adrenalin, punched Panthro right in the jaw, knocking him over. “I don’t need you! I don’t need any of you!” Lion-O protested vehemently. “Just get out of my life! I’ll make it on my own!” Lion-O ran and disappeared into the forest.
“Lion-O!” Cheetara yelled after him.
“Leave me alone!” she thought she heard him yell, though it was hard to tell, with him being so far away now.
Panthro was getting back on his feet and was preparing to run after him with Cheetara, but Tygra held them back. “No. Let him go. Give him time.”
Unbeknownst to the Thundercats, a dark one was watching them in that forest. He was watching their little show, and finding an evil glee within it all.
“So, the Thundercat lord no longer wishes to have no more aid from his friends,” Grune said to himself. “This is turning out better than I had expected.” Grune chuckled to himself.
“Just
who the Hell do they think they are? Gods? HMMPH! I might argue that! They’re
not as omnipotent as they think they are! Bunch of bastards! What right have
they to make demands of me?! I am they’re Lord! I am their superior! I beat
them all once, I’ve led them into battle and won them many victories, they
can’t lay that shit on my shoulders! They’ve no right! Don’t they know how hard
it is to be the Lord of the Thundercats? Do they know what it’s like trying to
make life and death decisions? Do they know what its like to stay awake every
night worrying about what the next day will be like? Always worrying about what
might happen? When the next enemy attack will be? What will have to done in
order to survive? When did they give thought to any of this? Why must I be the
only one who must take these things into consideration? Why was I cursed with
the title ‘Lord of the Thundercats’? I’ve done my best. Damn it, I’ve done my
best! Isn’t that good enough for them? Apparently not.”
Snarf had been following Lion-O for the last couple of days, oblivious to the fact that the others had probably noticed he was gone, and eventually found Lion-O climbing up a mountain. Snarf thought Lion-O had given up mountain climbing after the mutants attacked him on the mountain a few years ago, but now, Snarf figured Lion-O was looking for a place he go to and be alone. Why can’t he just use the trail? Snarf asked himself. Snarf did not climb up the cliff like Lion-O, he had not the strength or youth for it. Snarf made his way up the trail that led to the top of the mountain and eventually made it to the top where he knew Lion-O was heading. To his surprise, despite his age, Snarf made it up to the top before Lion-O did. When Lion-O made it to the top some two hours later, Snarf was already up there, almost done recovering his breath. To Snarf’s relief, Lion-O did not show anger. He showed dull surprise.
“Snarf? How’d you get up here?”
“You think just cause I’m old, I can’t do all the big physical endurance stuff you and Panthro do.” Snarf stood up from the rock he was sitting on and started imitating a muscle pose.
“What do you want?”
“SNYARF! I want to talk to you Lion-O. We need to have a major discussion about what’s happening with you and the others.”
“What’s there to talk about?” Lion-O asked, walking over and sitting next to Snarf. “I messed up.”
“That’s what we need to talk about, SNYARF SNARF.”
“You don’t want to talk about it, Snarf. It would only depress you.”
“I’m usually depressed anyway. You make me so worried the way you run into misadventures all the time.”
“Pumyra could have been killed Snarf,” Lion-O explained. “And it’s all my fault.”
“But she
didn’t die!”
“She could have. I don’t blame
them for being mad at me.”
“Well I don’t blame you for being mad at them.”
“I failed them, Snarf,” Lion-O moped. “I failed them. They’ve tried so hard to be patient with me. I’ve tried to repay them for it by doing the best I can, and Jaga knows I’ve done my best. But all I can do is swing around a sword. I don’t blame them for being angry. Their anger had justification. My anger had nothing. They were right to denounce me. And when they came to forgive me, I turned them away, damned them to Hell. Did to them what they did to me when I had not the right.”
“Now just a second there Lion-O! They had no right to do what they did!” Snarf protested. “No one has the right to do stuff like that! What goes around comes around, SNYARF SNARF! If you ask me, they had it coming!”
“I’m an idiot,” Lion-O stammered.
“That’s not true! Who warded off the mutants when they attacked our ship after we left Thundera? Who saved the Thundercats when we landed on 3rd Earth when they were locked in their capsules, unaware of the mutant threat hanging over them? Who freed them of Mumm-Ra’s control when he took over their minds that one night you were out camping? Who blocked out the eclipse that could have left our equipment malfunctioning for a hundred years? Who out did them in all the fields where they consider themselves specialists? You did!” Snarf pointed out, trying to boost Lion-O’s ego. “You did because you believed in yourself!” Snarf paused a moment, trying to think up some more material to boost Lion-O’s ego back to its regular size.
“You’ve been a better Lord than anyone’s had any right to expect. You’ve never been strung out on some addictive binge, you’ve never had to be afraid that what the Sword of Omens shows you has been wrong-”
“The sword does just about everything for me.”
“DAMMIT LION-O! You can’t just let everything fall apart when it should be coming together! Grune attacked the lair! He nearly killed Wilykit and Kat! We need you now more than ever!”
“I never wanted to be Lord of the Thundercats, Snarf.”
“What?”
“I’m gonna let you in on a little secret, Snarf,” Lion-O said sad and quiet. “I’m gonna tell you something I’ve never told anyone else. I never wanted to be lord. But I didn’t have a choice.”
“What?”
Lion-O stood up and paced around for a few minutes before turning back to Snarf. “I never wanted this job, this responsibility, this title. I never wanted any of it. I never wanted an empire with people bowing and worshiping me and asking me for help or if there was something they could do for me or any of that. I wanted a simple life. A farmer, a blacksmith, a sailor, anything but what I am, just getting by would be good enough for me. People think the lord lives a grand life and has everything, but I don’t have everything. I have nothing.”
He paused for a moment before continuing. “I only took to this job because it was what they all wanted. Panthro, Tygra, Cheetara, they wanted me to be the Lord of the Thundercats, so I decided I’d give it a shot, even though I didn’t know what the Hell I was doing or what the Hell I was getting myself into. I never wanted the job; I just took it because no one else would. Or could. I didn’t have a choice.” He paused again until finally saying, “But they did.”
“They what?” asked Snarf.
“Tygra. Cheetara. Panthro. Jaga. Even Wilykit and Wilykat. Now Snarf, you’d think that the Lord of the Thundercats would have more than those who follow him, but he doesn’t. They have more than I do. They certainly had more when they started than I did. Believe it or not Snarf, they all had more as the backup Thundercats than I, the Lord, ever did. They had a choice. They chose to become Thundercats, when they could’ve chosen not to. They were already nobles of the court, but that wasn’t enough for them. They had to be Thundercats. They had to have the title, the symbol, the power, everything that goes with being a Thundercat. No one said they had to become Thundercats. No one forced them to become Thundercats. They chose it.”
“Lion-O-”
“And then there’s Jaga. My friend, mentor, and surrogate grandpa. He had another choice. He had the choice of becoming Lord of the Thundercats after my father, Clawdus, was blinded fighting those damn mutants. Clawdus offered it to him. No one said Jaga had to become Lord of the Thundercats, no one forced him to become Lord of the Thundercats, he chose to become Lord of the Thundercats, when he could’ve chosen not to. A whole empire was laid before him, and he could’ve said no to it. He had that power. He had that advantage, and I didn’t. And I envy him, Snarf. I envy him for that power.”
“I see, SNYARF.”
“But what about me? Huh? What about the big, strong, rugged, infallible, supposedly perfect Lord of the Thundercats? Did I have a choice? Was I given the option of being a Thundercat or not? Hell no! I was practically born for it! My whole existence was conceived for the purpose of replacing Clawdus when the time came.”
“That oughta make you feel good, SNYARF SNARF,” said an encouraging Snarf. “You were born with a destiny and a purpose. Most people don’t have that.”
“Maybe it should, but it doesn’t,” sighed Lion-O. “Ever since I was born, all I heard from anyone was how great a destiny hung on my shoulders, about how I had to be the Lord of the Thundercats. I never had a choice. I was never given an option. No one ever asked me what I wanted to do with my life. No, it was just ‘Here it is. This is what you are. Get over it.’ Why is it the other Thundercats were given a choice over their destinies and I wasn’t? It’s not fair.” For a moment, Lion-O said nothing. Then he kicked a stone and roared, “Damn it its not fair!”
Lion-O sat down, slumping his shoulders. “Wrong. Everything’s gone so wrong. For a while, I thought I had things under control; that I knew what I was doing. Then this happened. I’ve lost my way. I’ve gone a crooked path.” Snarf had never seen Lion-O look so low. He wasn’t even paying attention to the eye glowing in the sword hilt. Snarf nudged him, clawed him, even bit him, but he paid no attention. “Jaga, Clawdus, someone. Show the way in which to walk. Show me the thing I must do.”
“I’ll show you what you must do!”
Lion-O stood up and looked around and suddenly felt a sharp pain dig itself into his right shoulder, causing him to yell out. Snarf leapt for cover, trying to gather his wits. The attacker then kicked Lion-O away, shoving him onto the ground. Clutching his shoulder, Lion-O looked up and saw Grune the Destroyer. “Die!” Grune jumped down and tried to land on Lion-O, but he rolled out of the way and managed to make it to his feet. Lion-O put his left hand into the claw shield and managed to take out the Sword of Omens, and extended it to combat size.
“I’ll give you this one chance, boy,” Grune threatened, “Give me the Sword of Omens, and I’ll let you live!”
“Never!” Lion-O yelled defiantly.
“Then you will die!” Grune charged at Lion-O, swinging his spiked battle club at Lion-O’s head, which he blocked with the claw shield. Grasping the sword with both hands, his left guiding and supporting his damaged right, Lion-O managed to keep the sword up and blocked Grune’s attacks with it as he stumbled back.
“Go ahead, boy,” Grune taunted, “Call your friends! Yell! Scream! Raise your sword! THUNDERCATS HO!” Grune mocked.
“I don’t need them to take care of a cowardly traitor!” Lion-O shot back.
“You’ll regret that, boy! Death to the son of Clawdus!”
“Oh yeah? Just try it, ya screw!”
On the defensive, Lion-O was already at a disadvantage. Grune had gotten the drop on him and had injured him. Lion-O was bleeding badly, and was exhausting much faster than he should have been. Much faster than he would be if only Grune hadn’t gotten the drop on him. For now Lion-O was holding his own but he couldn’t keep it up for long.
Grune struck hard and fast for someone as old as him, his rebirth sometime ago obviously re-energized him. Grune was wise to injure Lion-O when he did, or surely, the younger Thundercat would be doing much more than holding his own. Lion-O tried to switch around and get on the defensive, but with his shoulder injured, he didn’t have the flexibility to change his style of fighting for the battle. Lion-O managed to hit Grune in the face with the claw shield, but the blows only bounced off.
The combatants raged on, steel clanging against steel, roaring, growling, oblivious to the gray skies above. Finally, Grune struck Lion-O in the left rib cage with his club. Ribs busted into individual parts and small pieces within his body, and blood exploded from the surface of his skin. Dropping the sword, falling to the ground, Lion-O could only clutch his battered side, feeling that he was beaten.
“Who do you think got those stupid mutants and Lunatacs to work together?” Grune asked.
“A few people… ARGH! Come… to mind,” Lion-O replied.
“I did! It was too easy to sell them on the belief that together we could whip you and take the sword! This plan practically wrote itself! I never expected you and your friends to go so awry! I would have loved to watch you all continue to struggle, but alas, all good things must come to an end!”
“And when… you’ve got… the sword?”
“Death to all who oppose Grune!” Just as Grune was about to beat Lion-O’s head in, Snarf jumped on his head, biting and clawing at his face.
“Get away from my boy!” Snarf yelled. “You hear me?! I said get away from my boy! This is Snarf the Fierce you’re dealing with!”
Lion-O took advantage of Snarf’s unexpected attack to grab the sword and managed to wobble to his feet, ready to attack Grune and hopefully strike him down. “Get off, or I’ll make a mop out of you, fur ball!” Grune eventually grabbed Snarf and threw him off. “Now where was I? Oh yes.” Grune turned around to finish off Lion-O, and found him to have disappeared from his spot, with a trail of blood leading to the east. Grune looked around for a few minutes, knowing that Lion-O was still near by, that he couldn’t have gotten far. He started yelling for Lion-O to come out and fight to the end like a man, mocking, insulting, challenging. Then he heard someone behind him, and asked, “So, give up carrot top?”
“Like… shit!” Grune turned around just in time for Lion-O to thrust the Sword of Omens into his chest, approximately where the heart should have been, that being if he still had one, and Lion-O’s vision was so blurry at this point, he couldn’t be sure if he was stabbing in the right place. Lion-O twisted the sword, and knew what he had to do.
“Thunder, Thunder, Thunder,” with each word the sword grew, and with each extension, dug deeper into Grune’s body, and caused unforgettable harm. Grune yelled out like an animal being dragged to the slaughterhouse. “Thundercats! HO!”
The Cat Signal flew out from the Eye of Thundera and shined high in the sky for the Thundercats to see.
“That’s my boy!”
At the Cat’s Lair, repairs neared completion. Wilykit and Wilykat had come back, fully rested and healed up and ready to help. While outside, filling the Thundertank back up with Thundrillium, they all saw the signal, and knew that their lord needed them, and have them he would. “HO!” Wasting no words, the Thundercats jumping into the Thundertank, ready for action.
“Tygra ready! HO!”
“Cheetara ready! HO!”
“Wilykit,”
“And Kat,”
“Ready, HO!”
“Everything’s set,” said Panthro. “Let’s go!” and they roared off for the mountains.
At the Tower of Omens, Bengali sat looking out the monitor, watching the gray clouds form. “Wow, that’s some storm building up out there. Huh?” He saw the Cat Signal. “Lion-O needs help!” Almost falling out of his chair, Bengali rushed out of the room, the only thing stopping him when he reached the door was Pumyra, who was still wobbling a little bit but on the road to recovery none the less.
“Hold up Bengali, I’m going with you.”
“No! You’re too weak!”
“We have no time to argue!” Lynx-O yelled. “She is right!” Pumyra smiled. Bengali dropped his mouth. “I can sense Lion-O’s heart is beating much too rapidly! And his life force is dropping fast! He will need Pumyra!”
“I’m goin’ too, SNYARFER SNYARFER! Uncle Snarf might be there, and he might need help!”
Bengali did not argue and a few minutes later, he, Pumyra, and Snarfer took off for the mountains where the Cat Signal had come from.
Grune was pushing Lion-O back. Between his shoulder and his ribs, he had lost too much blood his strength was all but gone. Everything was starting to turn red and fuzzy. Lion-O was being pushed back towards the edge of the cliff. He tensed the muscles in his legs as much as he could, trying to push forward with them to keep himself from being pushed over the edge by Grune.
His strength was fading, but his will was as strong as ever. Determined not to give up, to fight o the end like any true Thundercat, to uphold the Code of Thundera, Justice, Truth, Honor, and Loyalty right to the bitter end against Evil, Injustice, Greed and Betrayal. Holding Grune back with the sword, Lion-O started hitting him in the stomach again. In his weakened state, even with the claw shield, Lion-O still wouldn’t be able to crack those ribs, but maybe if he went for the stomach…
Grune brought down his battle club on Lion-O’s left shoulder, blood streaming down his arm. He finally broke to his knees. Grune took a side with a spiked edge and put next to Lion-O’s neck, forcing it in and then dragging it up to his chin, blood oozing out.
“I’ll give you credit, boy,” Grune taunted. “You stood up to me, and fought well, but in the end,” Grune ripped his club off the edge of Lion-O’s chin and raised it above his head, ignoring the blood that splattered on his boots, “it was all for naught!” Lion-O kept his eyes on the club, never looking away, never closing his eyes, not even when Grune swung down and hit him right in the side of the head, near his left eye.
Lion-O fell off the edge and took the Sword of Omens with him. Grune watched and laughed as Lion-O bounced off the sides of the cliff, until finally landing on a hard trail some hundred feet down. Surely, Lion-O had fallen to his death. Grune raised his bloody battle club in the air in triumph.
“For Evil, Injustice, Greed, Betrayal, and Power! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!” Harsh rain began to fall. Harsh winds began to blow. Thunder sounded and lightening struck in the skies. Then the lightening started landing down around Grune. This unnatural disaster was not celebrating Grune’s victory over Lion-O. It was damning it.
“Let those who harm my son know my wrath!” cried out a loud, familiar, ghostly voice. “Know the wrath of Clawdus! Lord of the Thundercats!” The lightening came down and struck Grune’s battle club. Grune felt the lightening fusing through him, electrocuting him, scrambling his molecules, causing even more harm than that which the sword had done, and finally, blowing up his club. His club destroyed, lightening continued to rain down and struck Grune, connecting with his arms, his legs, his face, his eyes, his ears, his mouth, until finally one single huge bolt of lightening came down and engulfed Grune, burning him, pushing him over to the edge, and finally, sending him falling, bouncing off the cliffs and sending him on a fall that would not end for another ten thousand feet.
“Pumyra! Is it me, or did someone just fall off the mountain?” Bengali exclaimed, sure that he saw a tall and massive figure falling.
“You’re right, someone is falling!”
“Oh God, don’t tell me-”
“No, its not Lion-O, thank Jaga. It’s someone else. Grune.”
“Grune? Oh, well, to Hell with him. We’ve gotta get to Lion-O.”
With the storm subsided, Snarf made his way down the trail to Lion-O. Lion-O was lying on his back, his right leg folded under his left knee, his left arm dangling on the side, his right arm folded by his head. His eyes were closed. He was barely breathing. Snarf found the sword plunged into the ground.
“Lion-O!”
Snarf ran over as fast as he dared for fear that he might slip and fall. He yanked the sword out of the ground and put it in Lion-O’s hand, closing his fingers on it. “Lion-O! Wake up! Say something! It’s me! It’s old Snarf!”
“Snarf?” Lion-O’s eyes opened. “Did I… win?”
“I think it’s a draw, Lion-O,” Snarf said, tears brimming in his eyes. “A storm struck out of nowhere, and knocked old Grune clear off the mountain.”
Lion-O almost laughed, but stopped when he noticed how much it hurt him to laugh. “Wish… I could… have… seen it.”
“You just hang in there and-” Snarf heard sounds of machines. He looked up and out and saw the Thunderstrike coming towards them. He looked up to where Lion-O had fallen from and heard a machine pull up. The Thundertank. “Lion-O! It’s all right! The other Thundercats are here! You’re gonna be fine! Just hang in there and-”
“Snarf…” Lion-O interrupted weakly. “We all… make mistakes… now mine… has… caught up with me…”
“NO!” Snarf screamed defiantly. “You can’t! Fight Lion-O! Fight!”
“I did. I… lost. I failed… again. I…failed them in life… and I… failed them… in… death… At least… now… I… won’t have… the chance to… fail… them… again. May… they have… mercy…on my… memory.” Lion-O’s breathing was giving out. His grip on the sword was loosening. “Tell them… I tried… Snarf. Tell them… that I… appreciated… everything… they did. Tell them… that I… tried.”
“Lion-O.” Snarf could not hold back the tears he felt forming.
“Now… as my eyes close… and give way to the land of shadows… may my friends and family… forgive me… and forget me…” Lion-O forced his eyes shut.
“Lion-O?” Snarf nudged his body, and had no reaction at all. Snarf looked over and saw that he no grip left on the sword at all. “Lion-O.”
“Lion-O!” yelled Panthro as he led the others down the mountain trail. They had to leave the Thundertank up on the cliff because it would never make it down the slim trail roads.
“Lion-O!”
“Lion-O, are you okay?” the others yelled. They all backed up when they reached him. Pumyra was kneeling over him, Bengali watching from a distance, an unsure and not too hopeful look in his eyes while the Thunderstrike hovered softly to the side. Snarfer was at the same distance as Bengali, patting Snarf on the back.
“Lion-O…” Panthro managed breath while gasping for breath.
“Are we too late?” asked Tygra.
“Will he be alright?” asked Cheetara.
“Of course he’ll be alright!” insisted Wilykat.
“Yeah!” agreed an enthusiastic Wilykit. “After all, he’s the Lord of the Thunder-”
“Wilykit, Wilykat,” Pumyra spoke softly. The kids looked at her. Pumyra shook her head sadly no. “We were too late.” There was a silence. Pumyra looked at them with sympathy. “I’m sorry.” She stood up and walked over towards Bengali and stood with him to let the others have their space. She and Bengali had never gotten a chance to get to know Lion-O, but he seemed like a nice guy to them and a brave warrior. They were more concerned about how the ones who did know him would take it.
Tygra, Cheetara, Panthro, Wilykit, and Wilykat stood there, frozen, blank with shock that slowly melted away as tears brewed in their eyes. Wilykit stumbled forward and touched Lion-O’s cheek. It felt numb and cold to her and she jumped back. She looked away and started convulsing, feeling like she might throw up. Cheetara knelt down beside her and started patting her on the back, trying not to let Kit see the tears in her own eyes.
Wilykat tried not to say anything. He tried not to cry. Real men, real Thundercats didn’t cry. He looked up at Tygra and Panthro for support, and when he saw that they too had tears in their eyes, decided it was all right to let his own tears flow.
Lion-O was 24 years old when he died. His time as Lord of the Thundercats lasted only about four or five years. The Thundercats carried him up to the top of the mountain where he had fought Grune valiantly to the death, and gave him a private funeral, burying him underneath the rocks, marking his grave with the claw shield. They all wanted to say something, but no one knew what to say, so they said nothing. Taking the Sword of Omens with them, they left their Lord to rest in peace and went back to their respective homes, the Tower of Omens and the Cat’s Lair. Rain fell hard, as though the heavens were crying with the Thundercats, shedding tears for their lord, their friend. Shedding tears for Lion-O.
THE END?
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