LUNATAC MAYHEM: Chapter
One
The Skycruiser was unusually quiet as Mystan
Benekasbeel sat in the Captain's chair. The Lunar Droids bustled about, seeing
to the day to day operations of the massive vessel. Beside him Chilla Iespyk stared
intently into the small monitor depicting Cat's Lair. "How long will we
remain undetected by the
"Another hour or so. That should be plenty of
time to get us out of their radar range," Chilla replied, a thin tendril of
mist slipping from her lips.
"I'm impressed. Something of Alluro's is working
perfectly," Mystan remarked.
"I don't know. He did design Skytomb and it's
still afloat," Chilla said.
"That could work either greatly in our favour or
greatly against us," said Mystan. "Alluro works for me. If Skytomb
takes massive damage, either Psikaris won't be able to repair it and it will be
a hopeless cause, or she'll redesign it better."
From the helm, Red‑Eye laughed. "Good luck
to her, then. I happen to know that Alluro deliberately designed Skytomb so
that only he could fix it. Sort of a guarantee of employment."
"Good for Alluro. What is the latest on Skytomb,
speaking of which?"
"Knave and Shade were on patrol in that region
and will catch up with us in time for the strike. I imagine they will give you
a full report at that time," Chilla replied.
* * *
The wind whipped through Knave's white spotted hair
as he and Shade passed by Skytomb in the Ice‑Hypno Flyer. It was working
efficiently, which was the best one could hope from the craft. Knave's eyes
scanned the region, estimating Skytomb's course and speed. "Hmpf. It looks
like they've got the same idea. They're heading for the Thundrainium fields on
a course for Cat's Lair. We'd better head back and report this to Mystan,"
Knave said.
"We can do that later. There's still time for
other diversions," Shade said.
"There'll be plenty of time for that when we get
to Skycruiser. Mystan won't put us to work right away," Knave said.
"You're no fun anymore," Shade laughed.
"What can I say? You've ruined me forever,"
Knave said, an equal amount of mirth in his voice.
* * *
"Deed you see that?" Tug-Mug asked Psychro.
"The Ice‑Hypno Flyer. Fascinating. Luna
and Tycho should hear of this at once," Psychro replied. The ice/psi
hybrid turned on his heel and walked out the door.
* * *
Skytomb's massive engines whined louder as they
sought to increase speed. The little Ice‑Hypno Flyer soon found the
fortress gaining on them. Knave knew that there was only one chance of evading
Skytomb. The
* * *
"Evasive action!" Luna shrieked as the
Flyer disappeared into the
"As you command," Psychro said.
"This will work in our favour. The Thundercats
at the
"Ri‑ight. The Ice‑Hypno Flyer buzzes
by and the cats will be so enthralled that they won't see Skytomb go
past," Luna said, rolling her eyes. "No, the Flyer is lost to us.
Psychro! Get us back on our original course over the Thundrainium fields."
That was one advantage to Mystan's little revolution. With Knave on the
opposing team, Luna didn't have to worry about any of her crew being affected
by the fields.
* * *
"The Ice‑Hypno Flyer just pulled into the
hangar," Chilla reported.
"Good." Tapping the intercom, Mystan said,
"Knave, Shade, report."
Mystan's sharp hearing picked up on a muttered,
"So much for not putting us to work right away," before Knave's voice
came over clearly. "Skytomb was headed towards the Thundrainium fields,
and judging by the course, they were also headed for Cat's Lair. They chased us
a bit, but we lost them in the
"What then?"
"I don't know. We were too busy trying to save
our skins to look over our shoulders."
"And there was no pursuit from the
"None," finished Knave.
The telekinetic snorted, "Adequate," then
flicked off the connection. "Given what I know of Luna, she won't let her
merry little chase get in the way of her original scheme. Lovely."
"I don't see why this is so good," grumbled
Red‑Eye from the helm.
"Oh, it's better than that," chuckled
Mystan. "We'll let Luna have her fun. If Skytomb retreats, we swoop in to
finish off the cats. If either Skytomb or Cat's Lair is destroyed, we pick off
the winners. Perfect. Chilla, how long until Alluro's radar cloak wears
off?"
The ice Lunatac checked her screens. "About half
an hour."
"The Skycruiser is capable of interstellar
flight," said Mystan, considering. "Bring us into a low orbit, resume
our course to Cat's Lair, but stay out of sensor range. We need to let the
cloak batteries recharge if we want to sneak up on the Thundercats. And Skytomb
won't expect an attack from on high."
* * *
The Thunderstrike wheeled through the sky and slowly
landed in the
"Easy there, Ghost. We couldn't do anything
about it," Pumyra said.
"Pumyra's right. By the time Snarfer informed us
of the Ice‑Hypno Flyer going by it was too late. That's not even
including the time it took us to get down to the hangar," Bengali added.
"I wish Lynx‑O would stop letting that
little idiot run this place," Ghost muttered.
"Lynx‑O can't run the Tower of Omens
twenty four hours a day; even he needs rest. You and Aker haven't learned how
yet and Pumyra and I were busy repairing the weapon systems," Bengali
said.
"How hard can it be, if Snarfer can run
things?" grumbled Ghost.
* * *
"Where is everyone, Cheetara?" Wily Kit
asked as she and her brother soared into the control room of Cat's Lair.
"Lion‑O and Snarf are at the Wollo
village. Hachiman reported Mutant activity in the area. Panthro and Tygra are with
the Berbils down near
"And we're stuck here? The others get all the
fun," Wily Kat moaned, hopping off his board.
"Any place is only as fun as you make it. Why
don't you go down to the libraries and look up one of your favourite stories,
'Nightcloak' perhaps?" Cheetara suggested.
"That sounds great, Wily Kat, let's do it!"
Wily Kit said, leading the way out of the room. Cheetara shook her head
slightly. Those two were getting more difficult to keep occupied every day.
* * *
"Are you sure this is safe?" Robear Bob
asked.
"It isn't, really, but we Thundercats need some
way to get across these Thundrainium fields. Otherwise we give the Lunatacs and
Mutants a possible weapon against us," Tygra replied.
"That's why we've brought you along. Since we
can't get too near the fields without being weakened we need you to bring us
small samples," Panthro said.
"We are pleased to help our friends, the
Thundercats," Robear Bert said. The two Berbils climbed out of the
Thundertank and began walking toward the mountains.
* * *
"Tycho! Take Psychro and Psikaris and deal with
those wretched Thundercats and their Berbil friends. We can't have them warning
Cat's Lair about us!" Luna shouted. Psikaris inclined her head slightly
before shouldering the standard issue rifle that she and Psychro carried. The
twins, following Tycho, left the room.
"But Loona, what about thee Sword of Omens?
Won't eet alert Lion‑O?" Tug-Mug asked.
"Don't you worry about the Sword of Omens. Tycho
claims that Psikaris has invented something that will block its sight,"
Luna said.
* * *
The Lunattacker roared around the base of the cliff that
Skytomb had landed behind. Given that
there wasn't enough cover on the Thundrainium fields to hide a snarf, the two
Thundercats saw the tank coming a long way off.
Panthro waited in the Thundertank while Tygra readied the laser cannons.
Surprisingly, the Lunattacker didn't lob a
fireball. Instead it popped open, and a
purple-haired Lunatac said, "Surrender quietly, Thundercats! We have the Berbils!" There was a burst of snickering behind the
speaker, who turned to glare at the two other Lunatacs.
"Let them go, whoever you are," demanded
Panthro. "Your quarrel is with
us."
The speaker leapt out of the draconic tank, drawing a
thin, curved sword from his belt in the same motion. "I am Tycho, prince of the Five
Moons." Tycho could feel the looks
the Myntaello siblings were giving him.
He was no fighter and they knew it.
The sword was a showpiece more than a weapon. In fact, neither of them took him very
seriously ever since they left the Moons.
Well, he'd show them. "Come
quietly, Thundercats, or be taken. You
are outnumbered."
"Not for long." Panthro jumped from the Thundertank, landing
just out of Tycho's range. He had sized
up the Lunatac, and decided it would be a short fight. Tycho was at least a foot shorter, a bit on
the thin side, and didn't even know how to hold his sword properly.
Psychro and Psikaris could easily see the panther's
train of thought. "I guess we
should go save our fearless leader," muttered Psychro, climbing out of the
Lunattacker. Psikaris followed, but both
were stopped by a web of energy that sprang up before them. The tiger stood on the other side.
"Maybe I can short this out with my laser,"
Psikaris murmured, stepping towards the web.
She aimed her weapon an inch away from the energy net, then shot through
a gap at Tygra. The web vanished.
"Down but not out," said Psychro as Tygra
struggled to his feet. "I'll get
him."
For his part, Tycho was doing well merely to avoid
being hit. Panthro had scored a few
glancing blows, and Tycho was beginning to tire. Realizing that Tygra was in trouble, Panthro
decided to end the fight quickly. The
nunchakus lashed out at Tycho...
... who sidestepped it, brought his sword down in a
wide arc...
... and sheared through the chain.
All other combat stopped as both sides watched the
red half on the nunchakus fell to the dusty ground. Tycho seemed just seconds away from maniacal
laughter when he turned suddenly, glared at the sky, and made a wide slash
through the air.
"Tycho?.." Psikaris started.
Tycho didn't answer her. He turned back to Panthro, grinning like one
possessed. "Shall we
continue?"
* * *
The Eye of Thundera flashed on the Sword of
Omens. "Snyarf, snyarf, trouble,
Lion-O!"
"Maybe it's the Mutants," said Lion-O. There had been reports of the Plundarrans
around the Wollo village, but Lion-O and Snarf had yet to see the creatures
that day. "Sword of Omens, give me
Sight Beyond... Arrgh!"
Lion-O fell to a crouch, holding the sword in one
hand and shielding his eyes with the other.
Snarf ran over. "What
happened, snyarf, snyarf?"
"I... don't know," said the lion, shaking
his head. "I started to get a
vision, but there was a bright flash."
"Could it have been Mumm-ra?" It was known that Mumm-ra could sense the
Eye's scrying. There was at least one
instance where the devil-priest didn't bother looking over, merely made a rude
gesture and continued on with what he was doing.
"Maybe. I
don't know." Lion-O sheathed the
sword. "Though it's probably worth
checking out. I don't think the Mutants
are around, else we would have seen something by now."
* * *
Chilla and Knave walked down the corridors some time
later carrying large pieces of scrap metal. "Why can't those stupid Lunar
Droids do this?" grumbled Knave.
"The wretched things would probably trip over
themselves in their eagerness to obey us. Then we'd have to find more
metal," Chilla replied. Alluro was doing reparation work to one of the
walls of Skycruiser and needed pieces of metal from elsewhere in the ship.
"We could scrap a few droids," Knave
started. He wasn't terribly fond of the
little robots, but Mystan seemed to like them.
Which meant they couldn't get rid of them.
When they arrived at the location, near the exterior
of the hull, they saw Alluro holding a small welding torch with welding goggles
pulled down over his eyes. He stopped as he heard the pair enter and moved to
meet them. "Can I help you with that?" he asked Chilla.
"It's quite all right. I can manage on my
own," Chilla said.
"Are you sure? They look heavy," Alluro
began before hearing the clattering sound of metal falling to the floor and a
jagged icepick being poked into his chest.
"She said she could manage on her own,"
Knave growled. The two locked eyes for a long moment before Chilla,
exasperated, pushed past them muttering something along the lines of
"Children!"
* * *
Lion‑O hopped onto the Thunderclaw and hit the
communications button. "Lion‑O to Cat's Lair. Come in,
Cheetara," he said.
"Cheetara here, what is it, Lion‑O?"
came the reply.
"Has anything unusual happened? The Sword of
Omens won't show me danger," Lion‑O said.
"That's odd. I'll try contacting the others and
see if they're all right," Cheetara said. A few moments had passed until
Cheetara's voice crackled over the radio once more. "You were right. Tygra
and Panthro aren't responding."
"Contact the
* * *
Panthro and Tygra were unceremoniously dumped at
Luna, or rather Amok's, feet. "Excellent. With these two out of the way it
will be easier to defeat the Thundercats!" Luna said.
"And we wouldn't have them if it weren't for my
abilities," Tycho snickered.
"We are a team, Tycho, you would do well to
remember that," Luna sneered, Amok pounding the floor for emphasis.
"The question remains, what do we do with
them?" Psychro asked.
"Throw them in the detention cells. We'll use
them as bait to lure the rest of those Thundercats to us. As for the Berbils,
let them earn their keep by stoking Skytomb's furnaces," Luna said.
"No, wait."
Luna rolled her eyes and twisted around to look at
Psikaris. The ice/psi woman was, in
Luna's opinion, far too nice for a proper Lunatac. If she tried to tell Luna she was being too
harsh... "What now?"
"I would like to borrow one of the
Berbils," she said. "I've got
an idea that will make him more useful to us than a mere stoker."
* * *
The Thunderstrike's engines hummed and grew louder
and louder. Lynx‑O, Bengali and Ghost sat at the controls, hands tensed,
ready to fight. The hangar doors opened and Lynx‑O's fingers played
across the braille board, sending the vehicle in to the wild blue yonder.
"Next stop,
* * *
Lion‑O's heart sank as he looked around the
area where Tygra and Panthro had been working. A broken test tube was testament
to this fact. He looked around and could see tread marks from the Thundertank
leading further into the fields. Surely they wouldn't have gone in there
voluntarily. "I don't like the looks of this, snyarf, snyarf," Snarf
said, cowering behind the two swordsmen.
"It would seem that somebody has kidnapped our
friends," Lion‑O surmised.
"That's why the Sword of Omens warned of
danger!" Snarf said.
"Then we should follow these tracks, wherever
they may lead," Hachiman said.
"We can't, Hachiman. If Snarf or I spent a
single minute in there, we could be killed," Lion‑O said.
"But Hachiman is not affected by this
Thundrainium. I will go," the samurai warrior said.
"No, Hachiman, it's too dangerous," Lion‑O
said.
"My friends have been taken hostage. They must
be avenged!" Hachiman said, walking determinedly into the fields.
* * *
Mystan sat in the Skycruiser's command chair, tapping
his nails against the armrest.
"What is keeping Skytomb? If
they were bent on coming to Cat's Lair, they should have been here twenty
minutes ago."
"Just a delay, I'm sure," said Shade. Then her voice deepened and she added,
"If we're lucky, they tried to follow us through the
"No, if we're lucky, they were
delayed." Unlike most of the others,
Shade's changes from Shade to her darker personality ( called by itself
'Nightshade' ) didn't faze him. After
five years, he was used to them.
"We'll wait up here for another forty minutes..."
"It was a delay," cut in Red-Eye from a
monitoring station. "I've picked up
on a conversation between Cheetara and Lion-O.
Apparently Panthro and Tygra were out by the Thundrainium fields, then
vanished. Skytomb must have picked them
up. Lion-O, Snarf, Hachiman, and the
The telekinetic considered that a moment. "Which
leaves Cheetara, Black Claw and the kittens in Cat's Lair. If they have any
sense, they'll leave at least one in the Lair at all times." He hit the
intercom. "Mystan calling Chilla. How would you like to do some cat‑baiting?"
* * *
"Sometimes, Psikaris, you really are
weird."
Psikaris looked over at her twin. Psychro was leaned
against the door to Alluro's ‑ no, her ‑ workshop. For her part,
she had the top of the Berbil's head off, and was mucking with its programming.
Various other tools sat within easy reach. "I really think this will
work."
"Come on," Psychro said, rolling his eyes.
"A killer Berbil?"
"It's always the one you least suspect,"
Psikaris said, ripping out a wire and replacing it with another. "And
before you ask, I've programmed it to attack Thundercats. Just Thundercats. It
won't turn on us."
"Like that's something to be worried
about."
"Just wait until Luna lets me sic him on one of
our prisoners."
* * *
Cheetara rushed over to where Black Claw was pointing
at the view screen. "It's Chilla!" As the Thundercats watched, the
Ice Runner swooped close to the Lair, and one of the outside cameras was
covered in frost.
"The Ice Runner's too small a target for our main
defences," said Cheetara pensively. "I'll take the Hovercat."
"But the Hovercat is no match for the Ice
Runner's speed," protested Wily Kat. "Our space boards are much more
agile."
"Chilla is a dangerous foe," warned the
cheetah. "You two stay here."
"Cheetara is right. It's most dangerous out
there," Black Claw added.
"Aw, come on," said Kit, feeling that the
Thunderkittens had been left out far too many times. "There's two of us
and one of her. And Kat's right about our space boards..."
Cheetara considered her options for a moment. Someone
had to stay in the Lair, and the kittens were right about the Hovercat.
"All right," she started slowly, and the kittens were out the door
before she could add, "But be careful."
* * *
"The kittens are after Chilla," Red‑Eye
reported.
"Excellent," said Mystan, pleased.
"When Skytomb does finally arrive, they will have to deal with both Cat's
Lair and the Skycruiser."
* * *
"Tug-Mug!" Luna shouted from across the
room.
"Yes, Loona?" Tug-Mug replied, wheeling
over.
"That foolish Hachiman is heading our way. Go
out there and stop him!" Luna said.
"If I may?" Psikaris said, entering the
room with an item on a cart covered by a blanket. "I think I may be able
to help our rotund friend. Allow me to introduce the Killer Berbil!" she
whipped the blanket off and revealed the modified Berbil.
Luna nearly fell off Amok laughing. "A killer
Berbil? I think you've been in that workshop too long. The fumes are affecting
your brain," she said.
"Trust me. This Berbil is fully under my
control. It's evil to the core and has a few modifications to make it
deadly," Psikaris said. "Trust me. Have I ever failed you?"
"Yes, but I'm willing to overlook that fact
right now. Send your little Killer Berbil with Tug-Mug. You'd best join him to
make sure Hachiman falls," Luna said. Psikaris, Tug-Mug, and the Berbil
left the room.
* * *
Knave slid into the water. Unlike many felines he
didn't mind getting wet. Especially when it would have such benefits. With the Thunderkittens
occupied with Chilla and Black Claw and Cheetara's eyes, no doubt, watching the
action, slipping in through the water supply would be a piece of cake. He
placed Alluro's breathing apparatus over his mouth and dove down.
* * *
Lion‑O lowered the Thunderbinoculars from his
eyes and turned to the radio. "What is it, Black Claw?" he asked.
"Chilla is attacking the Lair. The others are no
doubt nearby," came the reply.
"Great Jaga. The Lunatacs! Come on Snarf.
Hachiman is fully capable of taking care of himself, besides the Thunderstrike
is on its way," Lion‑O said, hopping onto the Thunderclaw.
* * *
Chilla spun in the sky. Teasingly dancing closer to
the Thunderkittens and then slipping further ahead. The forest lay ahead of
her. Soon she would be in it and the trap would be set. A pellet exploded
nearby and she let loose a burst of fire to keep up the charade. She made a
sharp turn at the forest edge and watched in the rearview mirrors as the
siblings followed suit. Only they weren't as successful. A sticky black net
fell overtop Wily Kat and a missile took out Wily Kit. Chilla turned and
landed. "Good shooting, Shade," Red-Eye said, as he and his daughter
emerged from the brush.
"Thank you, father," Shade replied.
"Those Thundercats should have known better than to mess with the
Lunatacs! Especially with Shade Twilight!" Nightshade added.
"Come on, we have to continue with the plan,
keep those Thundercats' eyes away from the drainage systems," Chilla
hissed.
To be continued...