Chapter 15 of Signal in the Sky
Whatever
By Purrsia Kat
While
Felina stayed up into the late hours of the morning discovering her parents’
history from letters in a box, Castle Plundarr was abuzz with activity. Vultureman
rubbed his beak impatiently. Slithe had been ranting and raving for nearly an
hour. What’s worse was the reptile pulled Vultureman away from his work in the
lab where he had started taking apart that ThunderBrat’s space board. Besides,
this was all drivel *he* certainly didn’t need to hear. It was not *his* fault
Lion-O escaped from their ambush. In fact, if they had done things the way
Vultureman would have, they’d have brought Lion-O’s sorry carcass back on a
spear instead of a useless female snarf.
He
sat stiffly at the war room table, his beady eyes focused on Jackalman sitting
at the opposite end; the dog looked ridiculous with all manner of wire and
steal holding his jaw together. Even through that makeshift contraption,
Vultureman could tell Jackalman was as bored as the rest of them. Slithe paced
back and forth, rambling on about how Panthro escaped and Grune was giving him
all amounts of grief for it. Vultureman stiffened to prevent himself from
groaning out loud. Why! Why did he have to be there with these morons? If that
stupid assistant he had back on Plundarr hadn’t messed with the important
project that had been commissioned by Ratilla himself, it never would have
malfunctioned and Vultureman would have been exalted instead of being assigned
to this command. He was doomed. Doomed to be stuck on this forsaken rock called
Third Earth with pitiful buffoons that didn‘t understand nor appreciate his
gift of genius.
“Vultureman!”
Slithe bellowed. “Stop your daydreaming!”
Vultureman
cawed loudly as a reflex. “I wasn’t daydreaming, Slithe,” he lied.
“Hoo,
then what did he just say?” Monkian asked with a lopsided smirk.
Vultureman
stared daggers at the simian. “He was talking about how you have shit for
brains.”
Slithe
picked up the nearest object, which happened to be Vultureman’s compact version
of the Thundrainium canon, and heaved it across the room, effectively
shattering it. The ruckus from the impact sent Jackalman straight up out of his
seat. He howled half in surprise, half in pain. “You imbeciles!” Slithe raged.
Vultureman
stared at the destroyed device, his beak agape and his eyes wide. “*We’re*
imbeciles?” the bird shrieked. “Do you know how long it took me to build that
canon? The next thing I’m building is a time machine so I can go back in time
and shoot you as you emerge from your mother’s womb!”
“That’s
the *only* way you could get the best of me,” Slithe rumbled before swishing
his tail at the enraged bird, knocking him painfully to the floor.
Vultureman
scrambled to his feet, swiping up a chunk of the destroyed canon and lobbing it
at Slithe’s head. “I don’t have to take this,” he cried while making a swift
exit. He heard the crashing sounds of Slithe tearing apart the war room in a
fit of rage as he made haste back to his lab. His eyes burning with anger, he
slammed the door to his lab. Ungrateful idiots....every one of them!
He
nearly blew his top, however, when he laid eyes on the scene before him. “You
little bastard!” he shrieked. Before the boy could react, Vultureman was upon
Jax. Vultureman grabbed the boy roughly by the scruff of the neck, uncaring
when he cried out in pain. He may be a mere child, but no one messes with the
things in Vultureman’s lab. Bringing Jax to his eye level, Vultureman glared at
him and dug his nails into the flesh of Jax’s neck. “I know just what to do
with you,” he told the squirming jackal.
*******************************
Jax
was shaking as they neared the Desert of Sinking Sands in Vultureman’s flying
machine. The pale glow of sunrise did little to calm Jax. Vultureman steered
the ship sharply to the right and down, and Jax gulped as he spied the
silhouette of the Black Pyramid below. “It’s true,” Vultureman cawed, glaring
back at the boy. “Mumm-Ra’s Pyramid...it stands.”
Jax
couldn’t take his eyes off the ominous pyramid long enough to spare a glance in
Vultureman’s direction. He wimpered softly and hunkered down, too scared to
wonder why Vultureman was taking him here. Jax winced as the flying vessel
landed roughly in the desert sands, coughing and choking slightly on the dust
and sand that was kicked up by the landing. Vultureman plucked the boy
effortlessly from where he was huddled in the backseat of the flying machine,
and carried him toward the pyramid. Jax didn’t dare struggle, fearing more
painful clawing -- or worse -- courtesy of Vultureman. He lay there, limp and
tucked under Vultureman’s arm.
“Mumm-Ra!”
The avian squawked, “open up you wretched pile of bones!” When there was no
response, Vultureman sighed heavily. While looking around for a way inside, a
stone panel in the pyramid slid open.
“Enter,”
Mumm-Ra’s ancient voice bade, sounding more haggard than usual.
Vultureman
let out a slight chuckle of satisfaction as he entered the pyramid. Jax only
looked up once while being carried through the dark corridor leading to
Mumm-Ra’s chambers. The sight of a grotesquely huge spider hanging amid the
scads of webs that crisscrossed the passageway was enough to prompt Jax to keep
his head down and eyes tightly closed for the rest of the journey.
His
eyes flew open when Vultureman carelessly dropped him to the ground before the
bubbling cauldron. Jax looked around wildly and whimpered at his intimidating
surroundings.
“What
is the meaning of this, Vultureman?” Mumm-Ra croacked.
Jax
recognized the voice as the same that bade them enter. His eyes widened in
fear, even though Mumm-Ra stood hunched and mostly hidden in his red cloak, on
the opposite side of the cauldron. Jax’s eyes bulged when he caught a glimpse
of Mumm-Ra’s sunken eyes glowing red beneath the hood of the cloak. The boy let
out a frightened yelp.
“This
*brat*,” Vultureman began with obvious contempt, “needs to learn a lesson.
Among other things, he is responsible for giving the ThunderCats back the Sword
of Omens when we had it in our clutches.”
Mumm-Ra
scoffed, a partial demented grin visible in the shadows of his cloak. “What do
you expect *me* to do about it, fool? Why don’t you just kill him and be done
with it?”
Jax
gasped from where he sat on the ground, looking desperately from Vultureman to
Mumm-Ra and back again. He winced when Vultureman emitted a shrill caw. Jax
hated the grating sound of the caws with which Vultureman so often punctuated
his speech.
“Personally,
I don’t think he’s worth dulling a blade upon,” Vultureman replied. “I just
want him out of my feathers. I‘ll make it worth your while to help me do just
that,” he added coyly.
“I
see,” Mumm-Ra muttered. Jax sighed in relief when the mummy creature turned and
began to amble back to his crypt.
Vultureman,
furious, stepped in front of Jax and toward the departing Mumm-Ra. “What are
you doing, Mumm-Ra? I thought we could make a deal!”
Mumm-Ra
glanced back, his eyes glowing briefly. “You have nothing I’m interested in, Mutant.
The kid is your problem. Now leave my Pyramid.”
Vultureman
cawed mockingly. Jax crept to his feet and began backing away from Vultureman,
not liking at all where he sensed this confrontation was going. “Admit it, bone
bag. You’re too weak to take care of a mere boy. Pathetic!”
“What?!”
Mumm-Ra raged as he whirled around. “Insolent bird!” Mumm-Ra unleashed two
jagged bolts of fiery red energy in Vultureman’s direction. To Jax’s surprise,
the nimble bird leapt out of harms way just in time. Unfortunately, that left
Jax in the line of fire and not enough time to do anything about it.
*******************
Following
a hearty breakfast, WilyKit and WilyKat scampered into the Lair’s hangar, where
Panthro was working on a new vehicle he began building the night before. In
fact, he hadn’t gone to bed at all. Though he wouldn’t admit it to anyone else,
the major reason for avoiding sleep was not so much ambition as the fear of the
nightmares he knew would follow his experience in Castle Plundarr’s dungeon.
And those bats. Those blasted bats. He shuddered just thinking about it. Those
unpleasant thoughts vanished however, as the scaffolding he was on wobbled
thanks to the kittens rough housing around it.
“Hey,”
Panthro called down to them. “Watch it, will you?”
“Sorry,
Panthro,” WilyKat replied. “We were just wondering what you’re making and--”
“--if
you’re gonna rebuild us a space board,” Kit finished for him, with a measure of
sheepishness.
Panthro
chuckled. “This takes priority, kids,” he explained, motioning to the skeleton
of a ship that was under construction. “And this is going to be a flying ship.
Maybe even space worthy if I can come up with a hyper space megacondensor for
it.”
The
kittens exchanged a wide eyed glance. “Wow, that’s neat!” Kit finally declared.
“But
what’s a, uh, megaconden-- , m-mega--thing anyway?” Kat asked.
“It’s
something the ship will need to travel in outer space, by giving the jets
enough boost to break out of Third Earth‘s force of gravity. Without it, it’ll
simply be restricted to flying within Third Earth’s atmosphere.”
“Hey,
maybe if we can fly in space we can locate other Thunderian survivors,” Kit
mused.
“Do
you really think there are any?” wondered her brother.
Panthro
shrugged. “Don’t see how we can rule it out. True all the ships in our fleet
were destroyed by the Mutants, but there were many fleets that left before us
which where quite a way ahead of us. Maybe they got lucky and missed an
encounter with the Mutants.”
WilyKit
and WilyKat beamed at the idea of surviving countrymen. “Well, we were on our
way outside and thought we’d see--”
“--how
you were doing and stuff,” Kat finished.
As
the cat’s paw raised to let the kittens out, Panthro shook his head and smiled.
“Alright, then. But no riding two to one board,” he reminded them concerning
their remaining space board.
“Aw,
gee, Panthro,” WilyKit lamented. “We’re not that heavy and--”
“Kit!”
WilyKat exclaimed as he jostled her shoulder, “look at that!”
She
squinted due to the brisk breeze blowing into the hangar, and gazed into the
eastern horizon where Kat was pointing. In the morning skies over of the Desert
of Sinking Sands, there was a brilliant flash followed by a point of light,
almost like a star, streaking through the atmosphere and into outer space.
“That
was like some kind of weird shooting star,” Kat commented.
“’Cept
it was going the wrong way to be a shooting star. Weird,” WilyKit concurred.
***********************************
“Jax, wake up,” came a seemingly distant yet
familiar voice. He remained unaware that he was being shaken. “Baby, wake up.”
Though his eyes flickered open briefly, Jax failed to focus on the woman
crouched over him.
“Leave
him alone, Aurea. That damn kid is a weakling and an embarrassment anyway. I’m
surprised he lasted out on his own this long,” scoffed a male, whose voice was
likewise familiar to Jax’s semiconscious mind. Frighteningly familiar.
“Adustus!
How dare you say that about your own son!”
“Some son. I’ve had pets less worthless than he
is,” the man growled.
Jax,
his mind still feeling jumbled and numb, could swear those were the voices of
his parents. But how could it be? His parents were far away and he was on that
strange planet with the other Mutants, the ‘Cats and the Mummy...wasn’t he?
“Jax, baby, wake up,” his mother pleaded once
again. He wrinkled his muzzle out of reaction to the strong scent of alcohol on
her breath. Blinking his eyes open once more, he finally focused on his
frazzled looking mother.
“Mama?”
he croaked. He didn’t dare scan the area for his father, for fear the mere act
of making eye contact would spur a beating. However, he did catch the gleam
from the light reflecting off his father’s military decorations on his uniform,
so there was no mistaking his presence. His brow wrinkled in confusion. Maybe
he the mummy hit him with the magic fire and he was dead. Maybe this was what
it was like to be dead. Did that mean his parents were dead too? “Where’m I?”
His
mother’s reply came back in a soothing tone, but with the words slightly
slurred. “You’re home now. The military police found you in the middle of the
road in town. What in the name of Plundarr were you doing there?”
Jax
blinked several times. “H-home? No, wait. There were cats and a big cat
fortress and a mummy and some mutants, one a vulture one, and a big cat with
one big tooth and--”
“Slow
down, hon. I can’t hardly follow you.”
“Wouldn’t
matter, you stinkin’ drunk,” Adustus raged, “you’re too wasted most of the time
to follow or be of use to anything. And *you*,” he growled, his focus now on
Jax. “What the hell possessed you to run away? Don’t say the beatin’s because
you only get what you deserve. If you knew how to act like you have two wits
about you, I wouldn’t have to get rough on you. Guess I’m going to have to whip
on you again until you shape up. I‘ve got enough to worry about around here
between that missing Mutant fleet and your drunkard of a mother.”
Adustus
raised his arm to backhand the boy where he lay beside his mother. His stinging
blow was averted by Aurea, who rose to her feet and began shoving her mate.
“Don’t you hit that boy after he just came back to us!”
“Stay
out of it, bitch,” he bellowed back while striking her hard across the muzzle.
While
his parents fought, Jax slunk off the chair he’d been stretched across, and
crawled to his room. He curled up in the farthest, darkest corner, covered his
ears against the din of their arguing, and sobbed. Now he wondered if what
happened on Third Earth was just a dream he had while cold and alone on the
streets of Plundarr. Maybe the cats that were so nice to him never even
existed. Maybe.
***********************************
He lives in his imagination, with
those friends of his very own
He doesn't get along with the outside world, he'd rather be alone
Sometimes, when it's late at night, he starts to wonder why
(The plans he made can never happen, so all he does is cry).
His parents, they can't understand why their son, he turned out wrong
He runs away from all the pain and forgets them when he's gone
He'd rather be all by himself because his plans, they seem the best.
He finally gets the nerve one day and now life becomes a test.
Whatever you want, whatever you
do, wherever you go, whatever you say
Mom and Dad, I'm sorry
Mom and Dad, don't worry
I'm not the son you wanted, but what did you expect?
I've made my world of happiness to combat your neglect.
---Whatever, Husker Du
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