Devolution
by Thundera Tiger

"Vultureman!" The shout echoed through Castle Plun-Darr and startled an annoyed mutant who had been intently studying an array of test tubes. Muttering a number of oaths that would have given Jackalman pause, Vultureman slipped off his lab stool and stomped into the hallway.

"Awwwk, Slithe, I’m in the middle of some experiments. Can it wait?" he whined.

The reptilian eyed Vultureman suspiciously. "You have been ssspending a great deal of time in your little lab, yesss? Perhapsss the rest of usss would like to know what you are doing." Slithe didn’t trust Vultureman and the latter had been far too quiet for comfort. So Slithe had finally given in to paranoia and decided to check on the avian mutant.

Vultureman eyed Slithe and then finally nodded. "I was awwwk saving it for a surprise. But since you’re so impatient…" he sneered. He gestured toward the open lab door and Slithe imperiously entered. He was confronted with an assortment of bubbling beakers, twisting tubes, and sparking wires.

Vultureman walked past the reptile and held up a beaker, catching the sunlight that was filtering in through a small window. The fluid within the beaker glistened. "This," he announced triumphantly, "is what I’ve been working on." He waited for Slithe’s reaction.

Slithe blinked.

Glowering, Vultureman continued. "Don’t you realize what this is?" he demanded.

Slithe was beginning to feel defensive and he didn’t like that feeling at all. "How am I sssuposed to know when you keep all secretsss to yourself? Maybe you should inform the rest of the mutantsss, yesss?" His eyes glinted dangerously as he glared at Vultureman.

Vultureman hastily backed off, realizing he had pushed Slithe too far. If only that reptilian would keep his slimy nose out of his experiments! Vultureman didn’t have the time to explain things to that half- wit. "Relax Slithe. When this is finished, it will be the solution to all our problems. Awwwk,what you see here, is the key to our dominion on Third Earth."

Slithe was not satisfied, though. "And what, Vultureman, isss the key to our dominion on Third Earth." His tone of voice told Vultureman that Slithe was not in the mood for word games.

But Vultureman had the answer Slithe was looking for. "Give me a few more hours to complete it. Because this," he told the reptilian mutant, "is the doom of the Thundercats."

* * * *

Cheetara stretched her arms and arched her back, enjoying the sunlight. She yawned sleepily. So far, the day had been nothing more than a lazy afternoon. She rolled to her feet and looked around for Panthro. She quickly spied him talking to Robear Bill. Trotting over, Cheetara could sense that their mission to the Berbil village was almost done. She knew Panthro was anxious to get back and finish some modifications he’d been making to the Thundertank. Panthro looked up at her approach and smiled. "I think we’re finished here, Cheetara. Ready to go back?" The cheetah nodded and fought to keep back another yawn. Panthro turned back to Robear Bill. "Do you have any more questions about the detectors?" he asked the Berbil.

"No. Thank you again for all your help. Our village will be safer now."

"I hope so," Panthro told him. "Those mutant attacks have been getting vicious. But at least now you’ll have some forewarning and so will we. But we’d better be going." The Berbil thanked them again for installing the new detection system that would inform both the Berbils and Cat’s Lair of any mutant attacks. Panthro and Cheetara headed for the Thundertank. "You seem pretty sleepy today," the panther commented.

Cheetara smiled and laughed. "It didn’t help that I got stuck with two watches last night."

"Two?"

Cheetara laughed again. "I promised I wouldn’t tell Lion-O, but the kittens didn’t quite make it up for the early morning watch. They were so worn out from helping with the Thundrillium yesterday that they kept right on sleeping. They looked so peaceful and they really had been a big help. So I just let them sleep."

Panthro laughed with her. "I didn’t think those two were ever going to run out of energy. It was all we could do to keep an eye on them. But I’ll bet they’re driving the lair crazy today after having gotten that extra sleep." The two Thundercats had almost reached the Thundertank when a loud siren went off. A startled Cheetara jumped backwards, but Panthro already had his nunchucks out and swinging. "I guess we’re not finished here after all," he yelled above the blaring noise. "That’s our detection system. Either it wasn’t installed right or we can expect some mutants."

"I’ll contact the Lair," Cheetara told him, racing toward the Tank with cheetah speed. They hadn’t connected the Lair to the Berbil village yet, so the Lair would not be informed of the trouble, though the Sword of Omens might warn Lion-O when she and Panthro began to fight. Cheetara got a hold of the Lair and told Tygra what the situation was. He promised reinforcements soon. Cheetara jumped out of the Tank and raced back towards Panthro.

"It’s not the system," the panther yelled at her from the main computer terminal. Berbils were running past them in a frantic rush to find shelter. "There are mutants on Skycutters closing in."

"And just the two of us," Cheetara finished his unspoken thought for him. Panthro nodded.

"We’ll just have to make do," she said, brandishing her staff.

"We’ll show these mutants they can’t mess around with the Thundercats," Panthro growled.

"Any way to tell how many there are?" Cheetara asked. Panthro shook his head, not taking his eyes off the sky. Suddenly he pointed. Cheetara followed his finger and saw two Skycutters speeding over the forest in the distance. Cheetara started to race toward them, staff out and ready. Panthro had reached the Thundertank and was starting the engines. As she got closer, Cheetara recognized the mutants. "Slithe and Vultureman," she called to the panther as he drove up in the Tank.

"This will be fun, then," he shouted back. But Cheetara suddenly had a strange feeling about this attack. It wasn’t like the mutants to attack in such small numbers. But she wasn’t given time to think about it as she heard the engines change noise. The Skycutters were changing course and veering for the Thundertank. Evidently, they were spotted. Cheetara hopped into the back and manned the big gun. A laser blast from Slithe’s Skycutter hissed past the tank. "Now Cheetara!" Panthro yelled. Cheetara aimed and fired as Panthro swerved out of Vultureman’s line of fire. The mutant flashed by with a hand held weapon, firing as he did so. Panthro grunted. Cheetara felt something hiss past, but she herself wasn’t hit.

"Panthro?" she called.

"He hit me with some kind of a dart," the panther replied, flinging the dart out the side of the tank.

"Hang on!" Panthro veered the Thundertank around after the mutants. He was about to say more when the roar of a different engine filled the air. Cheetara looked up and spotted the Feliner dropping out of the sky.

"Slithe, the Feliner," Vultureman called out.

"Did you get the Thundercatsss?" the mutant shouted back.

"Awwwk, I missed Cheetara. But I got Panthro."

"Clumsy! We’ll have to hope that’s enough. We can’t fight the Feliner and the Tank. Back to Castle Plun-Darr!" With that, he turned his Skycutter away from the Berbil village. Vultureman was quick to follow.

Meanwhile, the Feliner had landed just outside the village. Tygra and Lion-O hopped out. The Thundertank pulled up shortly after they landed and Cheetara jumped out. "Ho, Thundercats," Lion-O greeted. "Everyone alright?"

"All’s well," Panthro responded.

"Didn’t you say you were hit with some kind of dart?" Cheetara asked him.

"Yeah, but it was a little one. Nothing to worry about."

"Do you still have the dart?" Tygra asked.

Panthro shook his head. "I pulled it and concentrated on driving the Thundertank. I wasn’t about to let those mangy mutants damage my Tank."

"I hope it wasn’t anything serious. That wasn’t a normal attack," the tiger said thoughtfully.

"No, it wasn’t," Lion-O agreed. "They gave up far too easily. And from what we could see, they really weren’t making any serious effort to damage the Thundertank. And with only two of them on Skycutters, well, I don’t know. I don’t like it."

"Ah, they’re mutants. They don’t have much upstairs, if you know what I mean," Panthro responded. "But if you don’t mind, I’d like to get the Tank home. There’s some things I’ve been meaning to work on."

The other Thundercats tried not to smile. They all knew how much Panthro loved to play with his Thundertank. "Well, don’t let us keep you from your toy. Do you want a ride back, Cheetara?" Lion-O asked.

"I’d love one," the cheetah responded. "Especially since the Tank just drove off and left me."

She watched as the Thundertank rolled over some hills and out of sight.

"Odd. Didn’t you ride here with Panthro?" Tygra asked. Cheetara nodded. "I’m surprised he didn’t ask if you would be riding home in the Feliner."

"Well, you know how he gets when he starts tinkering with that thing. I’m sure it’s nothing," Lion-O responded. "Let’s go home. When we left, Snarf was almost finished with dinner."

* * * *

Jackalman and Monkian were waiting outside Castle Plun-Darr for the return of Vultureman and Slithe. "Now maybe we’ll learn what’s so exciting about Vultureman’s new discovery." Jackalman said as the two landed the Skycutters. Vultureman and Slithe hopped off the Skycutters and moved toward the other two mutants.

"Slithe, what’s such a secret? What’s going on?" Monkian demanded.

"Yes. We want to know," Jackalman added.

"Something very interesting is about to befall the wretched Thundercatsss. I think it would be more exciting if we could watch what will happen, yesss? Maybe Mumm-Ra will help usss. We could watch through his cauldron." Slithe was enjoying keeping the two mutants in suspense and was playing up the drama.

"Mumm-Ra! Awwwk, he’ll ruin everything!" Vultureman protested.

"No, he won’t. Not thisss time. Because our plan is full proof, yesss? He may even help usss."

"How?"

"By providing usss with the meansss to attack the rest of those stupid Catsss." Slithe glared at the avian mutant, daring him to argue back. Vultureman was clearly unhappy with the decision but didn’t say anything. "Then it isss settled. We will go to the Pyramid and watch through Mumm-Ra’s cauldron."

"I still say that pile of bones is more trouble than he’s worth," Vultureman mumbled.

* * * *

"…and I told Bengali, Pumyra, Snarfer, and Lynx-O that they could have dinner with us tomorrow night. Is that okay with you Snarf? Snarf?" Lion-O looked at the little snarf curiously. Snarf’s concentration was broken and he hurriedly looked toward his former charge.

"Sorry Lion-O, I guess I was distracted. Yeah, that’s fine with me. But you could ask them if they’d bring dessert. That will cut back on the work load." Snarf turned back to watch Panthro who was staring off into space. Something was wrong with the Thundercat, but Snarf couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Panthro was acting strange. "Snarf, you haven’t touched your dinner. What’s wrong Panthro?"

"Hmmm? I’m sorry, Snarf, I guess I just don’t feel like eating right now. Or, well, I do, but just not this."

Snarf looked at the panther in surprise. Panthro was not normally a picky eater. "Anything you had in mind?" By now the rest of the Thundercats were taking an interest in the conversation.

"Uh, no, not really. I’ll poke around in the kitchen for a bit if you don’t mind." With that, Panthro got up from the table and disappeared down the hall.

"Is he okay?" Wiley Kit asked. "He seems kind of out of it."

"You would be too, if you’d just spent the entire afternoon installing detection systems around the Berbil village. Those Berbils are nice, but they’re enough to drive anybody crazy," Wiley Kat joked.

"I could say the same thing for a couple of kittens," Tygra said.

"What did we do now?" the kittens demanded.

"Nothing you don’t usually do," the tiger answered.

"Lion-O!" the kittens shouted. Lion-O laughed. "Weren’t you telling us the other day that Thundercats don’t say mean things about each other?" Kat pointed out.

Lion-O tried to be sober. "Of course. Tygra shouldn’t have said that. Right Tygra?" He turned to the tiger who was trying very hard not to laugh.

"Right Lion-O. The truth can sometimes be very hurtful." The kittens were about to set up another protest when they were interrupted by a loud crash from the kitchen. Snarf was the first one out the door. The others were quick to follow him.

Bolting around a corner, Snarf suddenly skidded to a halt. Hot on his tail, Wiley Kat and Kat slid right into him. All three were bowled over when Lion-O, Cheetara, and Tygra knocked into them. But everyone forgot about the pile up when they looked into the kitchen.

It was a mess. It looked as if something had gone crazy. Meat from the freezer was strewn about and dishes lay in pieces on the floor. Cupboards were open and some of the tables were completely overturned. And in the middle of it all, lying face down and shaking with convulsions, was Panthro.

Tygra was the first to react. Picking himself up off the floor and making his way through the broken glass, he knelt by the panther and checked for vital signs. Panthro’s heart was racing. His skin was beaded in sweat. While Tygra did this, he could hear Lion-O barking out orders in the background. The kittens were ordered back to dinner, Snarf was asked to start cleaning up, and Cheetara was instructed to contact the Tower of Omens. Tygra rolled Panthro over onto his back. Panthro’s muscles were knotting and twisting beneath his skin. Tygra looked around the kitchen and saw Lion-O, still there and watching. "Lion-O, I’m going to need to get him to sickbay." Lion-O nodded and moved to help Tygra carry the heavy panther. Taking his hands while Tygra took his feet, the two lifted. Two sets of eyes widened.

Panthro was incredibly light. "Never mind, I think I can take him myself," Tygra amended.

"I’ll go with you," Lion-O told him. He allowed Tygra to shift the panther until he was fully supported in Tygra’s strong arms. The lion went ahead and opened the door into the hallway as a broom-carrying Snarf walked into the kitchen, trying not to show his obvious concern. Tygra slipped past and

Lion-O quickly followed. When they were farther down the hall and out of earshot, Lion-O started the questions. "What just happened? What’s wrong with him?"

Tygra shook his head. "I have no idea. Fever’s high, he’s shaking but not from chills, he’s lost an exorbitant amount of weight in a short amount of time, I don’t know what he did in the kitchen to make it look like that, and even before dinner he was acting kind of dizzy. Symptoms could mean poison, viral infection, some kind of weird spell cast by Mummra; I just don’t have enough information right now. I'm going to need some blood samples and I want sickbay quarantined just in case he has some kind of contagious infection."

"Isn’t it kind of late for that?" Lion-O asked.

"Better safe than sorry."

They walked further in silence. Lion-O stepped ahead to get the entrance to sickbay. "Do you think it has something to do with the mutant attack today?"

"I was wondering that," the tiger answered as he walked into sickbay. He gingerly laid the trembling panther on one of the beds. Again he checked vital signs. Sighing he shook his head and continued the conversation. "But I can’t think of what would do this. You can’t underestimate Vultureman. I’d feel better if we had that dart he was hit with. I talked with Cheetara after the attack. She said she felt a few fly over her head, but that she wasn’t hit. Maybe we can find some on the ground. I know it will take time to look but if it means helping Panthro…"

Lion-O thought it over and nodded. "Kit and Kat would probably be helpful. Cheetara could show them where they were attacked. I’ll get them over to the Berbil village. Do what you can for Panthro." Tygra nodded and watched the young lord jog out the door. He turned back to the shaking panther.

* * * *

Mumm-Ra had been rather annoyed when the mutants arrived in his pyramid. He was still quite weak from his latest attack on the Thundercats and needed some time to recuperate. But after Vultureman whispered his plan into the mummy’s ear, he started laughing hysterically. "Of course we will watch with my cauldron." He moved to the bubbling pool in the center of the room and murmured a short incantation.

"This will require some usage of power, as the Sword of Omens is currently in Cat’s Lair and protecting it, but I can get past that to Panthro." The mutants gathered around the pool. Monkian and Jackalman were still oblivious as to what was going on, but with Mumm-Ra acting the way he was, they decided it would be a good surprise. An image of the sickbay in Cat’s Lair appeared in the bubbling water of Mumm-Ra’s cauldron.

"That’s right Tygra," Vultureman laughed. "See if you can help him."

"Does this come with sssound?" Slithe asked.

Mumm-Ra glared at the mutant. "Do you want to see or not? I am not going to waste energy providing you with sound if it is not needed. It is enough that I am watching in Cat’s Lair."

"Look, Panthro’s waking up!" Monkian announced. He was still trying to figure out what was going on, but he knew it had something to do with Panthro.

* * * *

Panthro was indeed sitting up on one of the beds and rubbing his head. His eyes were glazed over and he seemed to be having trouble placing himself. Tygra quickly went over to him. "Take it easy, Panthro. Do you remember what happened?"

The panther shook his head. "I—I don’t—Tygra? Where, no, aaahh. I don’t know." Panthro grabbed his head and started to growl.

"Headache? Can you tell me anything? Panthro?" Tygra was desperately trying to get through to his friend. His fever had abated, but his pulse was still way too high for the tiger’s comfort. I really need Pumyra here, he thought. She’s trained for thi.

"Yes, headache. It is Tygra, isn’t it?"

Tygra nodded, even more disquieted than before. "Can you see me Panthro?"

"Yes, but, I don’t know you. I’m having trouble remembering." He started to shake again. Tygra grabbed his shoulders and pushed him back.

"Don’t try to move," he warned. He quickly found a hypodermic. "I’m going to try and slow down that heart rate. Panthro? Can you still hear me? " The panther was not answering. He was beginning to growl violently. Tygra didn’t hesitate any longer. He quickly sedated his friend and watched as the growling diminished and the panther drifted into sleep. "Now just stay there. I need to analyze those blood samples." On his way to the lab, he stopped to contact the control room. "Snarf? Get Pumyra over to the Lair as soon as you can. I’d like her to look at Panthro."

"Snarf, is Panthro okay? He didn’t look too good in the kitchen."

"I don’t know. That’s why I want Pumyra over here. She may be able to help."

"Okay Tygra. Whatever you say."

* * * *

"Find anything?" Cheetara called.

"Not yet," Kat answered.

"What exactly are we looking for again?" Kit asked

Cheetara sighed. She looked around at the ground just outside the Berbil village where the brief skirmish had taken place. "I don’t know. Some kind of dart. The kind you would be able to shoot with a handheld gun. It has to be around here somewhere. And don’t slack off just because you’re staying out past your bedtime," she warned.

The kittens looked shocked that Cheetara would even suggest such a thing. "We would never do that. Not when Panthro’s in trouble," Kit answered. Her brother echoed her.

Lion-O finally stood up from his crouched position. It was just too dark to really do any good searches. He was about to say something to that effect when the Thundertank communications started beeping. "I’ll see if that’s the Lair," he told the others. They continued with their search.

"Cat’s Lair to Thundertank. Cat’s Lair to Thundertank."

"We’re here Snarf. Go ahead," Lion-O answered.

"Tygra was wondering if we could get Pumyra over to help with Panthro. He didn’t sound too happy when I talked to him, snarf."

"Alright, contact the Tower and I’ll pick up Pumyra."

"Right Lion-O."

"Oh, and Snarf? Tell Bengali to get ready, too. He has good night vision. We could use him to hunt for whatever dart hit Panthro."

"Gotcha. Lair out."

Lion-O shook his head. Snarf didn’t sound happy. And Tygra was worried enough to call Pumyra over, as well. "Cheetara?" The cheetah raised her head. "I’m going to the Tower to pick up Pumyra and Bengali. Tygra wants Pumyra to take a look at Panthro and Bengali could help out here."

Cheetara’s forehead wrinkled in a frown. Lion-O could tell she was also upset over the fact that

Tygra was calling Pumyra. But she quickly nodded. "We’ll keep looking. Hurry back."

Lion-O jumped into the Thundertank and headed off to the Tower of Omens. As he drove, he thought about what was happening and tried to put events together. First there had been the raid on the Berbil village. Were the mutants testing the early warning system? No, that wasn’t it. They couldn’t have known about that. It was probably just a routine raid. Or was it? There were only two mutants. And it had been Slithe and Vultureman. That alone was enough to confuse Lion-O. It was usually Jackalman and Monkian who got the most out of raids. It almost felt like they were trying to draw out the Thundercats.

Had that been the purpose of the raid? And the mutants luckily found Panthro and Cheetara? But why? And to what purpose? The dart. That had to be the purpose of the raid. They wanted to attack with those darts. Lion-O decided to concentrate on that. Panthro had been hit in the late afternoon. Tygra had mentioned he had been dazed before dinner, but he didn’t collapse until half way through the meal. What was in that dart? He shook his head in frustration. The answers would have to wait until Tygra could figure out what was in Panthro’s blood or a dart was found. "You wouldn’t happen to have any answers, would you Jaga?" Lion-O asked out loud as the Thundertank went roaring toward the Tower.

Much to his surprise, Jaga’s voice answered him. "I do not at this time, Lion-O. Like you, I must wait until more is known."

Lion-O growled in frustration. "Can’t you tell me anything?"

"Not precisely. I only know that a great evil threatens Panthro. I do not know how, but his identity as a Thundercat is beginning to slip away. I can barely sense him through the Sword."

"What!?" Lion-O almost slammed the Thundertank to a halt. "What does that mean?" he demanded.

"I can not tell you, Lion-O. I do not know. Events are unfolding too quickly for me to track them." With that, Jaga’s presence seemed to fade away. Lion-O continued the journey in stunned silence.

If his mentor didn’t know what was happening, they were in big trouble. And if Panthro was slipping away as a Thundercat—Lion-O stopped himself before he went any further along that train of thought. How could that happen? He’d known Panthro for quite a while. Not as long as Cheetara or Tygra had known him, but he knew Panthro would never forsake his rank among the Thundercats. What on Third Earth was happening?

The Tower of Omens loomed ahead. Outside he could see both Bengali and Pumyra. He slowed the Thundertank and stopped it beside them. The puma and the white tiger jumped in. Pumyra settled in the back, while Bengali took over controls on the passenger’s side of the front seat. Lion-O started off before turning to the two Thundercats. "Have you been told what’s going on?"

Bengali shook his head. "Not really. We got a little out of Snarf, but he wasn’t very coherent.

Lynx-O finally convinced him to get Tygra. But Tygra didn’t sound any better. We know that Panthro’s very sick, but Tygra didn’t seem to want to give out any details."

"I think he was trying to protect Snarf," Pumyra added. "But I think that’s only going to make it worse. He told me enough to know what to bring." She indicated the satchel she carried. Lion-O could tell it was bulging with medical supplies. "But he didn’t tell me much more. And there was something about a mutant raid and a dart."

"Yes, well, that’s about all we know. I can fill you in on Panthro, but there’s not much there, either. There was a mutant raid on the Berbil village just after Cheetara and Panthro finished installing the defense monitors. Panthro was struck by a dart, but other than that, no one was hurt. Then during dinner, he didn’t seem very interested in food. He went to the kitchen to find something better and then he collapsed. Actually, we think he went a little hysterical before he collapsed. There were broken dishes and raw meat everywhere."

"Raw meat?" Bengali asked curiously.

Lion-O nodded. "I guess he was going to cook himself a steak or something. But there was a lot out. Anyway, we found him on the floor where he’d fallen. Tygra carried him down to sickbay. He’d lost a lot of weight, he was running a fever, he was sweating, his pulse was racing, and I don’t know what else was wrong. He was convulsing, I guess I can add that." Lion-O glanced back to see what Pumyra’s reaction was.

Pumyra was watching the last of the sunset. Her lips were drawn together and she appeared to be mulling over what Lion-O had said. At length, she broke the silence. "Do you think this is caused by the dart, or could it be something else?"

"Tygra was wondering about that. But the attack was different enough that I feel it’s the dart."

Pumyra shook her head. "I don’t know what to make of it. I don’t know of any poison that acts quite like this. Not one that strikes like this, anyway. But I wouldn’t put it past the mutants to come up with something."

* * * *

"Snarf, snarf, what’s happening to Panthro?" Snarf paced back and forth in the control room of Cat’s Lair. "If Tygra would only tell me something, snarf. I’ll just have to see for myself." With a sudden resolve, he bounded out of the room only to bump into Tygra.

"Whoa, Snarf, where are you going?" But even as Tygra asked, he knew what it was Snarf wanted to hear. And it was something he wasn’t prepared to give until he got a second opinion.

"Snarf, can you tell me what’s happening to Panthro? I hate not knowing."

The tiger sighed. "Not clearly. I’m running the blood tests again to see if I’ve missed anything and to double-check the results. I gave Panthro something to put him out for a while. He was getting delirious. If you want, you can go see him."

Snarf thought for a moment and then shook his head. "Maybe it’s better not to right now. I guess I’ll go down when Pumyra gets here."

Tygra nodded wearily and ran his fingers through his mane. "Well, I came up here to see if you wanted to catch some sleep. It’s getting late and there’s not a lot I can do for Panthro right now."

Much to his surprise, Snarf discovered that he was tired. Stifling a yawn, he decided to let Tygra take over watch. "Thanks. I think I’ll go do that, snarf."

Tygra watched the snarf leave the room and finally allowed his head to collapse on his arms. He was exhausted. It wasn’t from physical exertion, though he’d unloaded most of the Thundrillium by himself that morning after collecting it the previous day. It was from mounting concern over Panthro. The results of the blood tests were not encouraging. Something was happening that Tygra had never seen

before. So Tygra tried to go over the problem again. But he didn’t know where to begin. He’d never seen or heard of anything like this before. Panthro didn’t become delirious easily. There was something seriously wrong if he couldn’t recognize Tygra, the Thundercat he’d known the longest. Poisoning was definitely not out of the question. But what kind of poison? What kind of poison would wait and suddenly attack like it did? And what kind of poison would do what this one was doing?

Recalling what little he knew of poisons from Thundera, Tygra couldn’t find a match. He hoped Pumyra had more extensive knowledge than he did. There was very little he could do at this point in time.

He needed to know what was causing Panthro’s reaction.

"Symptoms are merely indications of a disturbance in the body’s system," he muttered quietly to himself. "I need to know for certain what the disturbance is. I can quell the symptoms, but that won’t do anything for Panthro." Becoming frustrated and showing an anxiety he would never show around others, he reached for the controls in front of him and monitored the Thundertank’s progress to Cat’s Lair.

* * * *

"Cheetara, I don’t think we’re going to find it in the dark," Wiley Kat said. "Flashlights are nice, but there are just too many shadows."

The cheetah sighed. "You’re right Kat, but I don’t want to just give up looking. Panthro is depending on us. We have to find that dart and make sure there’s poison. If there is, maybe then we can find an antidote."

"Yeah. We can’t just give up," Wiley Kit chimed in. "Panthro needs us. Besides, we’re Thundercats. And we don’t give up."

Kat sighed. "I know. I’m just saying it might be better if we searched in the morning. For all we know, this thing could be tiny."

"I think it is," Cheetara admitted. "But that doesn’t mean we give up." The three continued looking.

Kit began to wander away from the group and branch out a bit. It was possible that darts had been fired further away, she reasoned. A throbbing sound caught her ears and she looked up. Coming towards them, she recognized the lights of the Thundertank. "Cheetara, Lion-O’s back." Cheetara came running toward the kitten. She waved to the Thundertank, which was stopping. Something jumped out and then the Tank rumbled away, again. Kat, who had joined the group, recognized Bengali running towards them.

"Ho, Thundercats!" Bengali shouted. "Have you found anything yet?"

"It’s good to see you Bengali. No, we haven’t," Cheetara answered.

The white tiger nodded. "Lion-O took Pumyra on to the Lair. He’s going to be back to help us in a while. In the meantime, let’s see if we can find something to show for our efforts."

* * * *

At Cat’s Lair, Snarf welcomed Pumyra. He hadn’t been able to sleep after all, so he had appointed himself watchman outside, waiting for the Thundertank. Lion-O roared off in the Thundertank as Tygra came out to hurry Pumyra in. "What’s his condition?" the puma asked.

"Not good, I’m afraid. I haven’t been in to check on him recently, but he should still be sedated. But what I really want you to see are the results of the blood test. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s like his entire DNA is changing. There’s something masking the codons. It’s like he’s gaining new structures in the double helix where there shouldn’t even be strands."

Pumyra stared at the tiger. "Do you want to say that again?"

Tygra continued his hurried pace toward sickbay. "It’s true. His blood doesn’t even register as a Thunderian’s blood anymore. I just don’t know what to make of it."

"Snarf, what does all that mean? In language I can understand." Snarf hopped along next to the two Thundercats, trying to keep up. Tygra cursed himself. He hadn’t wanted to say that in front of Snarf, or anyone else for that matter. He was uncertain enough of the results himself that he didn’t want to cause needless worry. But he’d forgotten Snarf was following them.

"I’m not sure what to tell you, Snarf. Can you wait until the others are back? Things will be clearer then." Tygra could feel Pumyra looking questioningly at him, but the implications of his discovery were so unsettling that he didn’t want to alarm anyone. He’d only called Pumyra over because what he suspected couldn’t be happening.

Snarf looked annoyed, but thankfully didn’t press the issue. "I guess that’s okay. I hope they find a dart and hurry back. I guess I’ll go sit in the control tower." He left the two Thundercats and turned away from sickbay. Pumyra resumed her questioning.

"Let me get this straight. His DNA is changing? Changing to what? Is it a virus?"

"Not as we know it, no. It’s something similar, though. This doesn’t reconfigure the entire DNA, only parts. And it really doesn’t do that. From what I’ve been able to tell, Panthro’s DNA is still whole and complete, but there are overlying structures that are masking key codons. It’s like dominant and recessive alleles. Some of his traits have suddenly become recessive and new DNA is taking their place."

"That’s not possible, Tygra. I don’t see how something like that could happen."

Tygra had reached his lab by now and opened the door. "Neither do I," he agreed with the puma.

He gestured for Pumyra to enter. "But I can’t argue with the results. This is the fifth test I’ve run. I don’t know what to make of it."

Pumyra studied the test results and the blood samples. It didn’t take much time. Tygra had been neat and thorough. Finally, she put down the sheets of results and looked at the tiger. Her hands trembled.

"What does all this mean? I agree with you, but I don’t know what to make of it, either."

"That makes two of us." Tygra was about to say more when a crash interrupted his thoughts.

"That came from sickbay," he said. Quickly he was running down the hall. Pumyra was right behind him.

But she didn’t get a chance to enter the room as Tygra stopped just short of entering it. "Great Jaga," he gasped.

Pumyra slid to one side and looked in. Her breath caught and she felt faint. She leaned against the wall to steady herself, eyes wide. Before them, on the floor, was a black panther, struggling to get out of what had once been Panthro’s uniform. The beast looked at them with golden eyes and let out a squall, obviously startled. Four padded paws started struggling harder. Another squall echoed through the corridors. This was followed by a deep-throated growl and a low roar. Tygra began to back up. The panther ripped through the remnants of the uniform with razor sharp teeth and studied the two Thundercats.

Its snake-like tail whipped back and forth through the air. It growled again. Tygra took a frozen Pumyra by the arm and yanked her out of the doorway. The door closed. The two stared at each other.

"Now what?" Pumyra gasped.

Tygra shook his head. "I don’t believe it. But it makes sense. I knew I’d seen that configuration before. Panthro’s DNA has been masked. And that would account for the weight loss. His metabolism kicked into high gear and started consuming everything as he underwent the change. And like some viruses I’ve heard of, it waited until it was almost entirely though his system before initiating the new DNA sequence. He’s devolved. It’s reversed the genetic code. But—" Tygra looked back at the sickbay door.

He could hear claws raking against the wall as the panther tried to get out. "We’ve got to get him out of there. He’s going to get into something dangerous," Tygra decided.

"How?" Pumyra demanded. "We can’t just walk in there and ask Panthro to politely step outside as he has now become an animal and can’t be trusted in sickbay. That’s not even Panthro. He didn’t recognize us. He has no idea who we are. He’s just like Snow Meow, except that his wild instincts are on full blast. What are we going to do with him?"

"We can’t let him run loose in there or the lair. I’m afraid we’re going to have to put him down in the prison cells. It’s the safest place. He can’t hurt himself or us in there. We’re going to have to contact the other Thundercats, too."

"I agree. But how are we going to get Panthro down to the prison cells?"

Tygra was silent for a minute. "His sense of smell must be acute. But if he can’t see something, maybe that will confuse him enough to let me sedate him again. Then I can carry him down." He reached for his whip where it lay hidden at his side.

"When you open that door, he’s going to come barreling out," Pumyra protested.

"No, because you’re going to stand in the doorway and look threatening. He’ll think twice before jumping at you. And I’ll be in the room when the door closes. Then you need to get up to the control room and contact the other Thundercats. They need to know about this."

"Alright, but I’m not leaving until I see a sleeping panther in your arms. You might need help in there."

Tygra sighed, knowing Pumyra wasn’t going to be talked out of this. "Fine. You win. But don’t follow me inside. Let the door close in front of you. There’s an observation window just down the hall if you want to watch." Pumyra nodded. Tygra quickly wrapped his whip around himself and vanished.

"Here we go," he whispered.

The doors opened. The large black panther looked as though he was going to make a break for it, but stopped when he saw Pumyra. The puma had her sling out and was swinging it back and forth menacingly. The panther growled and began to pace back and forth. The door shut again. There was still something wrong, the panther sensed. There was a strange smell in the air. And things were beginning to move at the far end of the room. He snarled and backed up.

Tygra watched his friend warily. The full meaning of what had happened had yet to hit him. He simply wouldn’t accept that this was Panthro. It was still merely an animal that had become trapped in sickbay. The hypodermic needle was ready. Panthro could clearly sense his presence, but couldn’t see him. Tygra frowned and tried to figure out what to do next. He started advancing toward the cat. It was becoming skittish and frantic. A loud roar shook the room. It knew something was coming, but didn’t know what to do about it. Tygra stopped. Panthro was going to hurt himself or blindly lunge at Tygra.

Tygra thought his strategy through again. Finally, he did the only thing he could think of. His whip flashed forward, coiling itself around the panther’s legs. Enraged, the animal lunged at the now visible

Tygra only to trip and slide forward on the floor. Tygra yanked his whip taut and the panther landed on its back, its four feet firmly tied together. Tygra rushed forward and applied the hypodermic. The panther was lashing out with its head, snarling furiously. Its teeth almost found a hold on Tygra’s arm, but Tygra pulled back just in time. He backed slowly away, watching as the medicine began to take effect. The panther began to snarl less and less. Finally, it quit struggling and lay limp. Tygra staggered over to the door, realizing how tense he’d been and slumped against the wall. The door opened and Pumyra entered.

She took in the room and the exhausted Tygra against the wall.

"I guess it worked," she observed. Tygra nodded wearily. Pumyra continued. "Snarf just called from upstairs. The two of you made an awful racket. He wants to know what’s going on."

"Don’t tell him anything just yet. I’d rather make one announcement to all the Thundercats," Tygra told her. The puma nodded, not exactly liking the decision but understanding its basis.

"Do we still need a dart?"

"More than ever. We have to know exactly what’s causing this. Unless you can isolate it from the blood samples."

"I can try," Pumyra answered. "But something faster would be better." She studied the tiger as he pushed himself to his feet. "You’re exhausted. You call in the Thundercats and I’ll take Panthro down to the cells." Not waiting for his protests, the puma quickly unwound Tygra’s whip, threw it back to him, and managed to get the limp panther into her arms. She whisked past Tygra and out into the hall. Smiling in spite of their situation, Tygra shook his head and made his way to the control room. A very anxious Snarf met him.

"Snarf, snarf, what was all that racket? It sounded like you had Snow Meow down there."

"We need to get the Thundercats here. There’s something they need to know."

"No problem. I’ll contact the Thundertank. Do you want Lynx-O and Snarfer, too?"

Tygra paused and then shook his head. "No, we can just tell them when we tell the others. We’ll get them up on the screen." Snarf nodded and hurried to contact the Thundertank.

* * * *

The mutants had fallen over laughing at the snarling Panthro. Mumm-Ra was leaning against one of the statues, trying to control his own cackles. "Nyah-ha-ha-ha, Vultureman, that was pretty good," Jackalman snorted.

"Wait until awwwk we get them all. We can watch them as their primitive instincts turn them against each other. And we’ll never have to worry about them again!" Vultureman got to his feet and went back to the cauldron, still laughing. "They’re still looking for a sample awwwk dart. Say, why don’t we give them one?"

Slithe managed to get back to the cauldron as well. "Yesss, that seemsss to be a very good idea. Lion-O is now with them. We can destroy him and the Sword of Omens will be usssseless to the Thundercatssss."

Mumm-Ra approached the cauldron. "Bengali has almost found one of your darts," he observed.

"A few more minutes and he will see it. You don’t have enough time to get there."

"Mumm-Ra, can’t you transport one of us there? Will it take too much effort?"

The mummy was silent for a moment. Finally he answered Monkian’s question. "I can maybe transport one of you. It requires a great deal of effort, but if Vultureman were to go, I believe he is small enough I can do it."

"Wait. You mean we can’t all go?" Jackalman demanded. "I want to see the looks on the faces of those Cats when we tell them what’s going to happen."

Mumm-Ra glared at the mutant. "None of you have to go at all. I’m only telling you what I’m willing to expend to get you there. And you can watch through the cauldron to see what happens."

Jackalman subsided into growls and snarls, but didn’t challenge Mumm-Ra. The mummy turned to Vultureman. "Do you wish to pay them a visit?"

Vultureman nodded eagerly. "It will be a pleasure."

Mumm-Ra nodded. "Prepare yourself." Darkness began to gather in the pyramid. The other mutants backed away from Vultureman as lightning started to flash off the walls. "You will appear on a hill south of where the Thundercats stand. They will not be able to see you, but those defensive systems will detect you. Act quickly." Saying this, the mummy raised his hands and called on the Ancient Spirits of Evil. In a flash of light, Vultureman had disappeared. Mumm-Ra slumped. "I must rest," he informed the remaining mutants. "You may watch if you like. The cauldron will continue to observe as long as you are here. But I will not be disturbed. Is that understood?" The mutants nodded quickly. Mumm-Ra slowly walked back to his sarcophagus.

* * * *

"Let’s say one more hour. If we don’t find anything by then, let’s call it a night and try back in the morning," Lion-O said.

"Rowr, I just don’t like the feeling of leaving Panthro hanging. Any word of his condition from the Lair, Lion-O?" Bengali asked.

"I didn’t stay long enough to ask. I saw Snarf. He looked worried and he hustled Pumyra in pretty fast."

"What if Panthro’s dying? We can’t just give up now! We must be so close," Kit pleaded.

Cheetara suddenly stiffened and stood up. Lion-O was next to her and quickly turned. "What is it," he whispered.

"I don’t know," she whispered back. "I sense something, but I can’t quite pin it down." She trailed off and looked across the horizon. Before Lion-O could question her further, the alarms started to blare.

"Not now!" Wiley Kat shouted. "At night? Why would they come in at night?"

"Kat, Kit, get in the tank!" Lion-O ordered. The kittens hurried to obey, not taking the time to protest. "Bengali, sweep out away from the village. Cheetara, get to the village and see if you can turn down that alarm. Sword of Omens," he intoned. "Give me sight beyond sight." Before his eyes appeared an image of Vultureman carefully stalking a running Bengali. "Great," Lion-O muttered. "Just what we need." He put down the sword and started sprinting toward the white tiger. "Bengali! Vultureman’s behind you!" The alarm suddenly went down in noise level and Cheetara came racing out of the village.

She quickly caught up with Lion-O and then moved on to Bengali. Bengali had discovered Vultureman and had him on the run. But not before Vultureman had shot him with a dart. Coming over a rise, Vultureman could clearly see Lion-O in the distance. Now or never, he thought and took aim. Lion-O didn’t have time to call upon the Sword of Omens by the time he realized that Vultureman was firing at him. He was hit almost instantly. And hit again. Some more shots went over his head and then he was hit two more times. His flesh began to tingle and a strange fiery sensation swept over his body. Shaking his head, he tried to shove the feeling off.

Vultureman saw Lion-O had been hit at least once and knew the mutants would win. He didn’t see the two Thundercats close in behind him, though. He was suddenly knocked forward from a blast of Bengali’s hammer. Cheetara’s staff encircled him and a second blast from Bengali’s hammer sent Vultureman to the ground unconscious. Bengali grabbed the gun from his hand. He quickly checked the clip and saw several darts remaining inside. "This ought to help Pumyra and Tygra," he told Cheetara, showing her the ammunition. She nodded in agreement.

Lion-O trudged up the hill toward the two Thundercats. He was beginning to feel a little different. And he had the strangest craving for raw meat. "Lion-O, are you okay?" Cheetara called to him. But for a split second, Lion-O couldn’t remember who Cheetara was. He shook his head, trying to clear it.

"I was shot. Several times. I couldn’t think fast enough to get the Sword." He rubbed his head. It was beginning to ache.

"Lion-O, I was shot, too. I think we should get home quickly," Bengali told him. Lion-O nodded. That’s when they heard the sound of the Thundertank. Kit and Kat were driving it toward them. They screeched to a halt.

"Guys, Tygra wants us back at the Lair now!" Kat shouted.

"You two know you aren’t supposed to be playing around with the tank," Cheetara scolded them.

"But he said it was an emergency. He gave us permission to drive over to you. And he said no one is to engage any mutants. And no one is to touch the darts with their hands. Use something else to pick them up," Kit told them. The Thundercats exchanged glances. In the background they could hear Vultureman groaning.

"Call up the Lair, Kit," Lion-O murmured, trying to stay on his feet. "Tell Tygra that I’ve been shot four times and Bengali’s been hit once. But we’ve got Vultureman." That had taken more out of him than he would care to admit. It had been a struggle just to keep all the names straight.

The others could hear Kit talking to the Lair. For a while it seemed like she was arguing, but then she poked her head up again. "Tygra says to put Vultureman up front and Lion-O in the back prison cell. Don’t anyone go near Lion-O. And if Bengali starts acting strange, put him in the back, too."

"What?!" Bengali demanded.

"That’s what we said," Kat told him. "And Tygra just repeated himself. He said he’d explain everything when we get to Cat’s Lair."

The Thundercats looked at each other and Lion-O shrugged. "I guess I get to ride in the back, today," he concluded.

Everyone quickly arranged themselves. Bengali took custody of Vultureman, who was groaning but wasn’t showing any other signs of waking. Cheetara drove and Kit and Kat sat behind them. In the small prisoner cell Panthro had recently added to the back, they could hear Lion-O bouncing around as they headed back to Cat’s Lair.

While keeping an eye on Vultureman, Bengali contacted the Lair again to see if he could learn anything more. "Tank to Cat’s Lair, Tank to Cat’s Lair."

"Snarf, snaarrf, is that you, Bengali?"

"Yeah, Snarf, it’s me. Is everything okay there? What’s going on?"

"I don’t know. Pumyra and Tygra won’t tell me anything. They said they’d rather wait until everyone heard it. But I think they know what’s wrong with Panthro."

"Snarf, is Panthro still in sickbay?" Cheetara asked.

"No, he’s not. I don’t know where he is, snarf. Pumyra and Tygra moved him, but they won’t tell me where he is. I asked them if I could visit him. I was going to see if he wanted anything to eat. But

Tygra said he already took care of that. And Panthro’s not in his room, either."

"There’s not many places in the Lair to hide a sick Panthro," Bengali commented.

"And something’s bad enough that Tygra and Pumyra won’t let Snarf even see him. And Tygra said we couldn’t see Lion-O, either," Kit said.

"Or you, Bengali, if you start feeling funny," Kat added.

"How do you feel?" Cheetara asked the tiger.

"A little dazed. I’m getting this funny tingle where the dart hit me, but that’s about it. I don’t know exactly how to describe it. I do feel a little strange. But I’m not anywhere near collapsing yet."

"Panthro wasn’t either after he was shot. He stayed on his feet for quite a while. But Lion-O was hit so many times that I guess it’s taking effect now."

"Is Lion-O alright?" Snarf asked from the Lair.

"He’s still bouncing around back there," Kat said. "But he’s making a funny growl. I don’t know what’s going on. I can hear him through the metal."

"There were some really strange growls from sickbay, snarf, snarf. That happened just before Tygra told me to call you guys," Snarf whimpered.

Just then, Vultureman moaned and shook his head. He was still wrapped in Cheetara’s staff, so he couldn’t move. But when he opened his eyes, he started to laugh.

"And what’s so funny?" Bengali growled at him.

"Oh, nothing you won’t discover for yourselves," the mutant laughed. "You might have captured me, but the rest of you are doomed." He started laughing even harder.

"I think he hit his head on something," Kit said to Kat.

"Maybe, but I don’t think he’s got anything in his head to damage," Kat replied.

Vultureman swung his head around to glare at them. "I heard that, Thunderbrats. But just wait until you see Panthro. Or even Bengali here. You’re in for the awwwk surprise of your life!" He started to laugh again, but Bengali clamped his beak shut.

"I think I’ve heard enough from you, bird brain," Bengali hissed. Cheetara nodded her agreement but wasn’t in the mood to smile at Bengali’s antics. They drove on to Cat’s Lair in silence.

* * * *

The council room was quiet. Very quiet. They were all waiting for Tygra to come. Pumyra and Snarf had hustled everyone in to the council room while Tygra took care of Lion-O. Lynx-O and Snarfer were waiting in the Tower of Omens. Pumyra had pulled Bengali aside and was asking him about his symptoms. His answers seemed to upset her, but she wouldn’t say anything. He took her hand and looked into her eyes, trying to read the cause of her concern. But she pulled away and went back to the table, leaving a very confused white tiger. After what seemed like ages but was really only minutes, Tygra entered. Pumyra looked him questioningly. Tygra gave her a grim nod and she lowered her eyes. He slowly took his seat. Kit noticed something was behind his back, but couldn’t figure out what. It was Lynx-O who broke the silence.

"Well, Tygra? We’ve all been waiting for a verdict. What’s wrong with our fellow Thundercats?"

Tygra looked at Pumyra, but she made no move to speak. Finally, Tygra sighed and threw the object behind his back onto the center of the table. For a moment everyone stared at it, not comprehending the significance. And then Snarfer gasped from the Tower of Omens. "What’s wrong with the Sword of

Omens, Tygra? The Eye is closed." It was then that everyone saw it. The Eye was closed. The Sword’s

powers were locked away and useless.

"Can you get a good reading of this?" Tygra asked Lynx-O.

"Yes, and now that Snarfer’s pointed that out, I find the Tower’s sensors register this. But I didn’t think to look before. But why? What does this mean? Lion-O has been sworn to evil?" There was instant commotion.

Tygra raised his hand for silence and the room quieted. "No. Lion-O has not gone over to evil. But Lion-O is no longer Lion-O as we know him. He still lives, which is why the Sword has not chosen a new Lord of the Thundercats. But Lion-O is no longer capable of serving in that capacity."

"But Tygra, he’s been sick before. The Eye didn’t close then," Bengali pointed out.

"I don’t think he’s ever been quite this sick. If you want to call it sick. Actually, both he and Panthro are quite healthy right now. A little underweight, but in fairly good health."

"Then what’s going on?" Cheetara demanded. She’d been in the dark long enough.

Tygra hesitated a moment, trying to decided exactly how to break this news. Finally, he called an image up on one of the side screens. "I’m sending this to the Tower, as well. Does anyone want to guess what this is?"

"We know what it is, Tygra," Wiley Kat answered. "That’s one of the basement prison cells."

"Okay, now what’s in the cell?"

There was a pause before Snarf ventured a guess. "It looks like a panther. Kind of like the ones the warrior maidens tell stories about. The kind that live in the swamps far away to the south. Or even the legends of panthers that used to live on Thundera. But why is it here?"

"Look again," Pumyra whispered.

Suddenly Cheetara gave a strangled gasp. Her sixth sense had finally revealed to her what was really happening. "That’s no animal. That’s Panthro!"

Once again, there was pandemonium. But Tygra made no move to stop it. He let the Thundercats drown themselves in talk while he ran his fingers through his mane. He looked up as someone placed a hand on his shoulder. Bengali bent down to whisper in Tygra’s ear. "You placed Vultureman in a prison cell, didn’t you?" Tygra nodded at Bengali. The white tiger continued. "How many prison cells are left?"

Tygra immediately saw Bengali’s intention. He started to protest, but stopped himself. It was probably for the better. "There is one remaining prison cell."

Bengali nodded. "Then I’d better go lock myself in it, hadn’t I?" He turned and slipped out of the council room. In the commotion, the only one who saw him leave was Tygra.

Meanwhile, Cheetara was calling for order and wanted to know what had happened. Pumyra was refusing to answer any questions and they were beginning to turn to Tygra for an explanation. Finally the room was quiet again. Pumyra noticed Bengali’s absence almost immediately and asked Tygra about it.

"He went down to lock himself in the last cell," Tygra said softly. He tapped up a command on a computer console and the prison cells appeared on the screen. Bengali had entered the area and was shutting himself in the last empty cell. Vultureman was just drifting off to sleep in another one. A black panther and a large lion prowled around the other two. "The lion, as I’m sure you’ve all guessed, is Lion-O. I give Bengali about half an hour before he passes out from the strain of the attacking DNA. After that, it’s really only a matter of minutes.

"Why did Lion-O change so quickly?" Snarfer asked.

"He was shot full of it. By the time he reached Cat’s Lair, he was halfway through the mutation.

Shortly after I put him in the cell, he completed it. The rate might have been even faster if I’d never given him a sedative to get him down there. That seems to slow down the transition, but doesn’t do anything for the Thundercat."

"Can you reverse the process, Tygra?" Lynx-O asked.

"I don’t know. We need to analyze the darts and find the exact formula used to cause this. And then we need to figure out how to reverse it. Until then, we’re pretty helpless."

"And now we’ve lost the Sword of Omens," Cheetara whispered.

The silence was deafening. Finally, Tygra resumed command of the Council. "We’re going to have to make a few changes. While we search for a cure, we need to abandon the Tower of Omens. It’s too vulnerable and there aren’t enough of us to man both the Tower and the Lair. Cheetara, take the Thundertank to the Tower but bring back Lynx-O and Snarfer in the Thunderclaw. It’s fastest and we need speed. After that, we won’t be using the Thunderclaw. Everyone else needs to stay inside. That especially goes for you two," Tygra said, looking at the Thunderkittens. They nodded their understanding. "I’ve checked our food. We have enough to hold out for about two weeks," he continued. "I expect us to find a cure by then or the mutants to attack and finish us off by then."

"But what about the Berbils and the warrior maidens?" Pumyra asked. "What if they’re attacked?"

"I don’t know. We can go out in the Feliner and the Tank as long as the top’s on, but not the Thunderclaw. We can’t afford to get in the open. I don’t want anymore Cats getting hit with those darts. I guess we’ll just have to change our defense strategies. Are there any more questions?"

No one had any. They all sensed the weariness in Tygra’s voice and they themselves were suddenly tired. "Well," Cheetara said, standing up. "I’ll head over to the Tower and pick up Lynx-O and Snarfer. I’ll send the Tank back on auto-pilot."

"We’ll be waiting for you," Lynx-O informed her. "Tower out." Cheetara left the room for the Thundertank.

"I’ll be down in the prison cells," Pumyra told Tygra. "You should get some rest."

Tygra shook his head. "I’ll take first watch. Everyone else needs to get to bed. I need to start analyzing the tips of those darts, anyway. I may as well do it in with the control room computers."

"Tygra, I’ll be up anyway," Pumyra insisted. "Let me start them. You can take second watch."

Tygra studied her and realized she wanted to spend a few extra moments with Bengali. He finally nodded. "Alright. Wake me for the second one. When Cheetara, Lynx-O, and Snarfer get here, send them off for some rest."

"Who’ll take the third watch?" Wiley Kit asked.

"Let me worry about that," Tygra told her. "You and your brother should be in bed."

"But Tygra—" Kat started to protest, but Tygra cut him off.

"No, the two of you need to be in bed now. That’s an order."

"Yes Tygra," the two kittens mumbled. They stomped off to bed.

"I’d better follow their lead," Tygra said. "Snarf, why don’t you get some rest, too." Snarf nodded and quietly left the room. Tygra watched him, trying to think of something he could say to ease the shock, but he couldn’t think of anything. Finally, he turned to Pumyra. "Make sure you keep an eye on the Lair from the prison cells."

"I will," she promised. Tygra nodded and left the room. Pumyra sat for a bit longer, trying to collect her feelings. Then she turned and headed down to the cells.

* * * *

"Pumyra, I don’t know what to tell you." Bengali paused and searched for words. He could hear Vultureman snoring loudly in the background. The restless pacing of the lion and panther was beginning to get on his nerves. He tried to concentrate on the puma seated beside him in the cell, but his mind was beginning to wander.

"At least you still know who I am," she muttered.

"If you don’t find a cure, I want you to know—"

"Don’t!" Pumyra whispered fiercely. "Don’t even say it. We’ll find a cure."

"But if you don’t, I want you to know how much you mean to me. You’ve always been there for me. Since we were cubs." He was going to say more, but a sudden headache seized him and he lost his train of thought. He shook his head, trying to brush it off. His whole body felt like it was on fire. He could feel sweat trickling down his back.

"Bengali? Oh no, not now. Bengali?" Pumyra started to shake him. She felt the dampness under his uniform and knew it wouldn’t be long. Laying a hand on his forehead, she felt his temperature soar.

She could feel his wild pulse coursing beneath her fingertips. "Bengali, can you still hear me?"

Bengali was struggling through a hazy field of vision. "Yes," he managed. "I can, but it’s getting harder to concentrate. Everything’s so blurry." His hands grabbed his head as another headache swept over him, leaving him throbbing in agony. He began to tremble. He felt Pumyra push him to the floor and lay him down. He knew she was saying something, but he couldn’t make out the words. The throbbing in his head was getting worse. He could hear his heartbeat in his ears. He couldn’t tell if his eyes were open or closed. Darkness from some corner of his mind began to reach out. Amid the pain and confusion, Bengali almost welcomed it. But realizing what was happening, he fought back. He fought to keep his memory and his sentience. Yet the darkness continued to overtake his consciousness. "Pumyra," he started. But he couldn’t get any farther. It was just too much effort. He found her hand and held on, feeling that it was the only stable thing in his tortured mind. "I’m sorry. I’m so sorry."

"Stop it!" Pumyra ordered. "Stop it right now. You’re going to be fine. We’ll find a way to bring you back."

Bengali nodded weakly. He closed his eyes and tried to maintain consciousness. The attack seemed to have subsided for a minute. He opened his eyes and for a moment, his vision cleared. He tenderly wiped tears away from Pumyra’s cheeks. "Don’t cry," he whispered. He struggled to sit up, to show her that he was still okay. But Pumyra firmly pushed him back. The tiger was still trembling and his temperature was starting to rise again. Bengali felt it coming and knew that this time, he couldn’t escape it.

"If you never find a cure, I want you to know how much I care and—" but Bengali wasn’t allowed to finish his sentence. The darkness swept over him again. Eventually, the white tiger blacked out.

Pumyra saw him suddenly settle on the floor. His hand went limp in her grasp. The sweat continued to bead and tremors would occasionally shake his body. But she knew he was unaware of them.

She tenderly stroked his striped mane. It was so rich and full. But she noticed it thickening even as she touched it. Beneath his skin, she could see muscles and bones reshaping themselves. Whatever Vultureman had created worked very fast. She knew it spread throughout the body before the new DNA started giving out commands. But to watch it work this fast was horrifying. She couldn’t stand it any longer. Turning her back on the rapidly changing Thundercat, Pumyra stumbled out of the cell and closed the door behind her. She looked down the row of cells. Vultureman was fast asleep in one. A tawny lion gave her warning growl through the bars of another and continued his pacing. Further down, a black panther lifted its head and eyed her with golden eyes. Pumyra stared back at them all, refusing to comprehend the reality. The Lord of the Thundercats was nothing more than a lion caged in the basement of Cat’s Lair. The mighty Panthro was reduced to a panther in what could have been mistaken for a zoo.

And Bengali—

Unable to take any more, Pumyra stumbled up the stairs to the control room to wait out the rest of her watch.

* * * *

Cheetara stretched and pulled herself out of bed. The morning sun streamed in through the window to greet her. Out of habit, the cheetah began preparing for her morning run, and then remembered what had happened. "Can’t chance it," she told herself. "We can’t go outside the Lair until this is over. I’ll just jog around the Lair this morning." She walked out into the hallway and wandered into the control room, wondering who had been on the morning watch. When she, Lynx-O, and Snarfer had pulled in the previous night, they had found Tygra relieving Pumyra on watch. That had been close to midnight. And she hadn’t been called upon to participate in a watch.

Curious, she stepped into the control room and stared. "Tygra, do you realize you’re going to kill yourself?"

A startled tiger jumped to his feet and turned around. He managed a sheepish grin and sank back into his chair. "I didn’t think anyone else was awake."

"Have you been awake since we came in last night?" the cheetah demanded.

Tygra looked around the Control Room and cleared his throat. "Actually, I didn’t sleep last night."

"What were you doing during Pumyra’s watch?"

"Well, I was reviewing the tests and starting analysis of the darts."

Cheetara shook her head and sat down next to her friend. "I understand the need to push yourself. We need to find a cure. But pushing yourself like this? You’re going to do more harm than good. When did you plan on sleeping?"

Tygra thought the question over. "An afternoon nap would be alright." Cheetara glared at him.

"Okay, okay, how about a quick nap right now before breakfast?"

Cheetara smiled at him. "Yes, that’s much better. You’ve got about an hour. Go now, I’ll watch control until it’s time for breakfast. Do you want me to wake you?"

"No, I’m pretty sure I can wake myself up for it." Cheetara gave him a skeptical look. Tygra laughed. "But if I don’t, please come and get me." He got up and left Cheetara in the room. As he walked, he mulled over the data he had accumulated from the night before. The chemicals on the darts were amazingly intricate. He had no idea of where to even begin. Everything that had occurred to him had been dutifully written down. He couldn’t afford to let any idea slip. He would go over them with Pumyra later in the day.

But where did he start on something so complex? He supposed Vultureman had a complete set of notes stashed somewhere in Castle Plun-Darr. Acquiring those notes might was an option. In fact, it might even be a necessity. It could easily take months to decipher what Vultureman had put in that formula. And months were something the Thundercats didn’t have. Tygra shook his head in frustration as he entered his room. If something didn’t happen by the end of the day, he resolved to get the notes from Castle Plun-Darr. The Thundercats weren’t about to go down without a fight.

As he crashed onto his bed, still in full uniform, he tried to reconstruct what the computer had analyzed so far. But the strain of the night before had been too much. His eyes closed and he slept.

* * * *

"Cheetara?" Cheetara turned to look at Snarf. He was peering into the control room hesitantly.

"Good morning, Snarf. Need something?" she asked.

Snarf paused and then shook his head. "I, well, I was thinking maybe we should feed them. The ones downstairs. They’re probably hungry and Pumyra said they’d lost a lot of weight. But I, I wondered if you would do it for me."

Cheetara could sense that Snarf just didn’t want to see what had happened. He wasn’t coping well at all. "Of course," she said sympathetically. "What should we feed them?"

"Umm, snarf, snarf, I was thinking maybe, well, I guess just meat from the freezer. That’s what Tygra gave Panthro last night. And I guess we should give Vultureman something to eat. But he doesn’t deserve anything. When I think of what he did—" Snarf trailed off in a tirade of angry grumbling.

Cheetara waited for the rumbles to subside. "I’ll find some leftovers to throw to him," she told Snarf. "When do we get to be fed?"

"Oh, give me half an hour. If you’ll do this, I can have breakfast on by then."

"Alright. I’ll see about feeding the others, then." She noted wryly to herself as she walked to the kitchen that she couldn’t call them by their names or anything else. They were now the "others." Meat, she thought. Where did Snarf keep the meat? She found a suitable amount stuffed in the back of the freezer and then began to walk downstairs.

Before she reached the basement, she could hear wild roars and snarls. Bracing herself, she stepped through the doorway and prepared for the worst.

Vultureman perked up at her entry. "Cheetara! You’ve got to keep these mongrels quiet! I can barely hear myself think."

Cheetara fixed the mutant with a cold glare. "With the way some of us are feeling right now, you’re lucky there are still bars separating them from you." She threw in dinner’s leftovers to him.

Vultureman eyed her and proceeded to eat.

Cheetara looked at the cell across from Vultureman and saw a snarling Panthro. He was running back and forth, his sharp teeth gleaming and his tail lashing madly about. "Hungry?" Cheetara called. She tossed him a steak and winced as the panther dove into it with a ferocious hunger. "I guess so," she mumbled.

The next two cages were a little different. Bengali and Lion-O, or what used to be Bengali and Lion-O, were roaring viciously back and forth at each other. Cheetara could see the bars were scratched with tooth and claw marks from where they had been lunging, trying to get at each other. It was obviously a test of dominance. They were evenly matched. She sighed and tossed them both steaks. Unlike Panthro, they continued to snarl at one another. Finally, Bengali turned to his meat, stopping periodically to give Lion-O a warning growl. Lion-O did likewise. Cheetara watched this, unable to believe what she was seeing. It just wasn’t possible. She looked back to Panthro. The dark panther had already finished and was sniffing the edges of his cage, looking for more. She had given him a fairly large chunk of meat. Or so she had thought. But he was apparently still hungry. Doing a quick calculation, Cheetara came to a grim realization. They wouldn’t have enough food to feed the three transformed Thundercats. They were going to run out of meat within a week’s amount of time. The rest of the Thundercats could continue, but not these three. They would either have to set them free in the forest and risk repercussions from the warrior maidens and the unicorn keepers or find a cure before that time. A different sound from the doorway caused her to spin around. "Lynx-O?"

The old Thundercat turned toward the sound of her voice. "Cheetara? I didn’t realize you were down here. I seem to have left my small sonar device in my room. It sounds like quite a party we’re having down here."

"I guess you could call it that."

"A party!" Vultureman wailed. "You should have heard them last night when Lion-O and Bengali realized the other one existed. Awwwk, I was just waiting for the walls to start crumbling from all the noise they were making."

"You weren’t invited, you know," Lynx-O hissed at him. He turned back to Cheetara. "I needed to come down and see for myself. Receiving information through the Braille board is one thing. Actually hearing it is quite another. How is Snarf taking this? He’s still quite protective of Lion-O."

"Not well. That’s why I’m down here. Snarf thought to feed them, but he couldn’t force himself to do it. He asked me to do it instead." Cheetara noticed that Bengali had finished his meat. He licked his jowls and let out a satisfied rumble. He began to look for more meat. Spying the little that Lion-O had left, he started snarling at the lion. Lion-O raised his head and roared back. This excited Panthro who began setting up his own series of roars.

"I think we had best leave," Lynx-O told Cheetara, putting a hand to his head. "There’s a little too much noise down here." Ignoring Vultureman’s wailing, the two went back up the stairs. They were quiet going back up. Finally Lynx-O broke the silence. "And how are you taking this Cheetara?"

Cheetara paused before answering. "Better than others," she finally said. "Pumyra isn’t dealing well with this and neither is Snarf. I don’t think Snarfer or the Thunderkittens have realized exactly what’s happening, yet. It’s like they’re still in shock. But that can almost describe me, as well. I think Tygra is the only one who appears to be handling the situation. And that’s only because he can shut his feelings away from the rest of us. There’s really no way to tell with him. What about you?"

"I haven’t decided yet. I still hope for a cure and while I hope, I am trying desperately to pretend that none of this is happening." He paused and smiled. "I believe Snarf has breakfast prepared. Shall we?"

Cheetara sniffed and caught the aroma that Lynx-O had already identified. "Go on without me. I promised Tygra I would wake him for breakfast. That crazy feline took not only the second watch, but the rest as well. I made him take a nap before breakfast."

"Even though he strives to hide the way he feels," Lynx-O mused, "sometimes you can still catch a glimpse of it in his actions. I will tell the others you are coming."

Cheetara watched the older Thundercat with admiration. Then she turned to seek Tygra. She found the tiger fast asleep where he’d landed on his bed. Smiling, she shook his shoulder. "Tygra? Come on. Get up. Breakfast."

Tygra stirred and rolled over. He opened his eyes and got his bearings. "Thanks Cheetara," he said wearily. "Is it already time for breakfast?"

"Already? You’ve been sleeping for close to an hour." The tiger stared at her and grunted.

"Tygra, we need to talk. It’s about the food. The problem is, well, we don’t have enough to feed the three downstairs. There just isn’t enough meat for them."

Tygra seemed to shake off some of the haze and sat up. "What? But I just, oh no. You’re right. I didn’t even take into account the fact that they’re strict meat eaters." He sighed. "How much?"

"About a week. After that, we can starve them, release them, or cure them."

Tygra cursed. "Okay, I think we can work around this."

"How?"

"If Pumyra and I get nowhere today, I’ve got a backup plan in the works."

"You wouldn’t mind telling the rest of us what your back up plan is, would you?" Cheetara asked him. There was a warning note in her voice that Tygra couldn’t help but hear.

"Of course," he quickly told her. "But not now before breakfast. Let’s eat. I’m starving." He got up and waited for Cheetara to follow.

"Just promise me one thing. Tell me you won’t do anything stupid without help."

Tygra laughed. "Cheetara, what would I do without you? Of course I’ll look for help in my stupidity. Who wants to be stupid alone?"

"I could name one very stubborn tiger that would fit that description," the cheetah snorted. She gave Tygra a playful shove out the door. "But let’s get breakfast first."

* * * *

Breakfast was a very somber affair. Snarf would periodically whimper. The twins were unusually quiet. Pumyra made an attempt at conversation with Cheetara, but Cheetara could clearly see it was forced. Lynx-O was chatting quietly with Tygra about the possibilities of an add-on to the Tower of Omens. And Snarfer was picking at his food with no real interest in eating. Eventually, the twins asked to be excused. They left to begin their morning chores. In the gloom, no one thought to be amazed at this. Snarf soon left the table and wandered to Lion-O’s room. Snarfer followed him after a while. The remaining Thundercats could hear snatches of conversation floating in from the kitchen where the twins were starting the dishes. But it was hushed and solemn. Finally Tygra sighed. He turned to Pumyra. "I’ve started analysis of those darts. Do you want to see the preliminary results now or later?"

"Now," she said quietly. "Let’s get this started." The two got up and left for the lab. Cheetara and Lynx-O were left at the table.

"I suppose I should keep watch on the control room. I brought with me a portable Braille board.

It should work nicely." Lynx-O moved to get up.

"I’ll help you set it up," Cheetara offered. "There really should be two on guard anyway. We can expect to mutants to take advantage of this situation anytime."

* * * *

"Why don’t we finish them off now, Slithe? What’s the use in waiting?" Monkian had done a final check on their weapon supplies and was just itching for action. The mutants had returned to Castle Plun-Darr to prepare for a raid against Cat’s Lair and the Tower of Omens. "Doesn’t Vultureman have some remaining fluid? Can’t we just transform the rest of them? They would be great to throw into arenas at each other."

Slithe grumbled at the mutant. "It’s too soon. The Thundercatssss will be on their guard today. If we wait until tomorrow, that vigilance will begin to die down. Their hope will diminish as they realize there issss no solution. But if we act now, they’ll have sssomething to keep their mind off their fellow Thundercatsss."

"But they have Vultureman!" Jackalman protested. "What if they force him into giving away an antidote?"

Slithe grinned. "That isss covered. Before we initiated thisss plan, I asked Vultureman if there was a way for the Thundercatsss to reverse the process. He had been unable to find one. There is no cure!"

"But if there is no cure, why can’t we attack now? What difference will it make? Why can’t we crush them now?" Monkian demanded.

Slithe narrowed his eyes. "I’ve already told you. Let’s not wassste effort. If we can destroy the Thundercatsss without losing anything in the process, we’re one step ahead. From there we can attack the Lunatacs and eventually Mumm-Ra himself."

Jackalman and Monkian stared at the reptilian. "Attack Mumm-Ra? That’s suicide. And Slithe, I thought we should ask the Lunatacs to help us defeat the Thundercats," Jackalman protested. "That would be even easier."

Slithe growled softly and Jackalman backed up a step. "You would think ssso, wouldn’t you? But if the Lunatacs share in our victory, they split the spoilsss. Thisss way, we get both the Tower of Omens and Cat’s Lair. We can use both to defeat the Lunatacs. And the combined power we will then have will be enough to overthrow Mumm-Ra."

"So for right now we just wait?" Monkian whined.

"Yesss. We will attack tomorrow morning."

* * * *

"I’m tired of waiting!" Wiley Kit protested.

"Why can’t we just flush out the mutants instead of waiting for them to come to us?" Wiley Kat asked.

"It’s just not that simple," Lynx-O explained. "As things currently stand, we are restricted to the Feliner and the Thundertank. If the mutants can force any one of these vehicles to crash and open, we’re no good to the rest of the Thundercats."

"What about me and Uncle Snarf?" Snarfer spoke up. "There’s enough of a difference in our gene sequence that these darts shouldn’t affect us."

"No," Pumyra agreed, "but do the two of you want to face off against three, possibly four mutants plus the rest of us as mutated jungle cats?"

"Uncle Snarf here can convince you guys to help us! He can talk to animals."

"No, that won’t work, Snarfer," Snarf whined. "I might be able to talk to them, but that doesn’t do me a lot of good when they’re hungry and want to eat me, snarf. And that’s just what I’ll be. A nice jungle snack for Lion-O or Bengali, snarf, snarf."

"So we’re back to waiting," Cheetara surmised.

"But we can’t wait for long," Tygra warned. "Our meat supply won’t last. I’m afraid the kittens are right. By the end of the week, if we haven’t found a cure, we’re going to need to force the attack."

"And how close are you to finding a cure, Tygra?" Lynx-O asked.

Tygra looked over at Pumyra. She returned the glance and then answered Lynx-O. "The chemicals we’re working with are complex beyond anything I’ve ever seen before. I just don’t know what to make of it. Neither one of us has any idea where to start. I’m afraid, well, I don’t know if we could even simulate the initial chemicals given a year’s time. And as for a cure—" she shook her head.

Silence settled over the room. "What are the chances of forcing something out of Vultureman?"

Wiley Kat asked.

Cheetara gave the kitten a long, measuring look. "Define force."

Kat flushed. "I don’t know. There’s got to be something we can do. Surely there’s something that will convince him."

"We can’t resort to their methods, Kat. We can’t ‘force’ Vultureman to do anything," Pumyra explained.

"But he created the darts," Kit protested, picking up where her brother left off. "He knows the complexes. He knows the chemicals used. He could tell us. He might even know a cure. If he does and we don’t take advantage of it, we’re just condemning ourselves and the others."

"And anything to help the other Thundercats, snarf, is almost worth it," Snarf added.

"Almost. But not quite. The Code of Thundera will not allow it," Lynx-O argued. "If Vultureman is unwilling to voluntarily divulge the information, that option is closed to us."

"Which takes us back to waiting," Snarfer grumbled.

"And while we wait, the situation only worsens," Tygra added. He ran his fingers through his mane. "I’m going back to work. The rest of you can debate this out if you want to. I need to find a cure."

He got up and left the room. Lynx-O’s sharp ears could detect the difference a Tygra’s stride. The Thundercat was very tired. But Lynx-O could also catch something else. Something that spoke of a hidden resolve. He wondered for a moment but then decided it was nothing.

Tygra left the room in the direction of the lab. But once out of sight and hearing, he quickly changed his direction. His steps took him down to the paw and into the Thundertank. Quickly activating the vehicle, he opened the paw and drove off to Castle Plundarr. With any luck, he would be able to find Vultureman’s notes and scratch work. If nothing else, it would give the Thundercats more to go on.

* * * *

"Nyah-ha-ha, those Thundercats are going to get quite a shock out of this," Jackalman cackled to himself as he checked the power levels on the Thundranium cannons. "And with their numbers cut down, they’ll be powerless to stop us." He shouldered two cannons and carried them outside where Monkian was assembling weaponry. "Do you think we should mount these on a Skycutter?" Jackalman asked the ape.

"That’s a good idea. They’ll give the Skycutters some added power."

"Those stupid felines are in for quite a surprise tomorrow," Jackalman laughed. "First the Tower, then the Lair, and then we can have some real fun! I would love to see the look on Pumyra’s face when Bengali turns on her."

"Or we could let Lion-O loose on a rampage in Cat’s Lair with bite-sized snarfs hung up periodically for him to munch on." The two mutants laughed.

From his vantagepoint across the moat, Tygra grimaced. This wasn’t going to be easy. The mutants had any one of several devastating weapons at their disposal. "The moat, or the direct entrance," Tygra muttered. He opted for the direct approach, remembering what happened the last time that he’d tried going in through the moat. That had not been a pleasant experience. But the main entrance could be more dangerous. He watched Monkian and Jackalman continue to joke around and sort weapons. They were obviously planning some kind of assault. Tygra could hear bits and pieces of their conversation. Not only did his own mission have to succeed, but he had to get back to warn the others.

He quickly made up his mind and wrapped his whip around himself, turning invisible in a flash.

He then tiptoed past the giggling mutants. Jackalman looked up once and tested the air with his muzzle.

But he passed it off and continued joking with Monkian.

Once inside, Tygra let out a huge sigh of relief. He was lucky the mutants had left the door open for him. Now he needed to find Vultureman’s laboratory. He studied the castle for a minute and thought.

"If I were Vultureman, where would my lab be?" he mumbled. "Upstairs?" Tygra paused and then acted on instinct. He climbed a flight of stairs and began exploring. He thoroughly searched all the rooms on the level with no success. Until he came to the last one. Although it, too, was a dead end, there was a strange smell coming from the room above it. "It’s not a prison smell, and it’s not a dungeon smell. It smells like a lot of chemicals that haven’t been properly stored. That could definitely be it," he reasoned. He found a second flight of stairs leading further up into the castle.

The second level was not as large as the first. Tygra studied the layout and figured out where the rooms lay with respect to those below them. Then he found the room with the strange smell. Pushing the door open, he was greeted by a room filled with beakers, bottles, test tubes, and stored chemicals. Tygra smiled. Luck had been with him. He eagerly entered and began searching for anything that would tell him about Vultureman’s latest chemicals.

Tygra’s search was well rewarded. He found reams of paper with scratch notes, diagrams, formulas, quantities, and thorough explanations. He found a few marked beakers with the dangerous chemical inside. He carefully emptied the beakers and then hid them on the shelves. When he felt like he was through, he turned to go. And stopped.

"Well, Tygra? Going somewhere, are we?"

Monkian, Jackalman, and Slithe stood menacingly in the doorway. Tygra backed up, thinking quickly. Of course. The papers he was carrying. The papers were not invisible, as Tygra had not extended his mental field. They could see the papers. He put the papers down and moved away from them.

"That’s not fair," Monkian laughed. He raised a Thundranium cannon. "Come on, stripes. Show yourself. Or do I have to blow the lab away to find you?"

"Nyah-ha-ha-ha. Can I help? Of course, we don’t want to seriously damage you, Tygra. Come along quietly and we’ll deal gently with you," Jackalman added.

"Perhapsss you are wondering how we found you, yesss?" Slithe hissed. "Vultureman is quite protective of his little lab. He keeps the door alarmed when he’s not working in it. It has a warning signal that goes off in the basement. It was lucky I wassss working in the basement today or we would have missed you. And we would hate to misssss a friend."

Tygra’s mouth was dry. Though they still couldn’t see him, if they started shooting he was sure to be hit. And to extend his invisibility field to the papers would require him to become visible for a minute.

The mutants had effectively blocked the doorway. There was no way he could get past them that way. And there was no way he could escape carrying the papers. Nor would he escape without them. The Thundercats depended on that knowledge. His mind worked frantically. There was a small window that hopefully looked out on the moat. But how could he get through that window with the papers before he was shot? And how would he keep the papers dry in the moat?

"We’re getting impatient," Monkian warned.

Time! He needed more time. Tygra began searching the shelves for something he could use as a weapon, a smoke screen, anything to distract their attention.

"Here kitty, kitty, kitty," Jackalman called. Tygra gritted his teeth and held back a growl. There had to be something useful here. Surely Vultureman would keep something explosive in his lab. Then he saw it. A bottle of explosive marbles the Thunderkittens used. Vultureman must have saved some from when the Thunderkittens had been captured. Tygra gauged the distance between himself and the jar that sat on the top shelf. His whip would be able to get it. It could probably even trigger it. The explosion would cause quite a blast, but it might just work. He slipped closer to the papers. His whip would still be able to reach it.

"Time’s up, cat!" Slithe called. Tygra acted. His whip snapped, heading for the jar. One arm scooped up the papers, shielding them from what was about to happen. Jackalman and Monkian fired. His whip hit the bottle, breaking it open. The marbles poured onto the floor, exploding. The castle walls blew out, throwing mutants and Thundercat everywhere. Tygra felt a Thundranium cannon shot graze his side.

Pain lanced through him as another hit his chest. Then he was flying through the air. The explosion had thrown him outside and he could sense the ground rushing up to greet him. He tried to get into a position to land, but found he’d misjudged the distance. His shoulder took the full force of the impact. He felt the bones snap like twigs. Looking around, he noticed Monkian staggering to his feet a few yards away. Slithe and Jackalman were probably inside. Chunks of castle were still flying through the air. One side had been completely blown away. Tygra’s fur was singed. He could see Monkian’s face was badly burned.

Monkian stumbled around, trying to get his bearings. He turned and saw Tygra. A scream of rage escaped his lips.

Tygra jumped to his feet only to slump back to his knees. His right shoulder was screaming at him. Dropping the papers and shifting his whip to his left hand, though how he still had the whip was something he didn’t know, he flashed it at Monkian. The ape saw it coming but didn’t react fast enough. It entangled him and he fell. Tygra stumbled to his feet and left the whip, scooping up the papers in his one good arm. He had to get back to the Thundertank before the other mutants could find their way out of the wreckage of Castle Plundarr. His side and chest were burning with Thundranium and his strength was beginning to ebb. He realized that he shouldn’t even be on his feet, but desperation kept him going. He called on a strength he hadn’t known was there. The Thundertank was in sight. Only a few more seconds.

A rock exploded to his left. Looking over his shoulder, Tygra could see a charging Jackalman. The mutant was badly burned on the right side, but he didn’t seem to be showing signs of weakness. Grimly, Tygra realized that the mutants would be in much better shape than himself. The blasts from the Thundranium cannons would have diverted part of the explosion. With the last bit of strength that he had, Tygra summoned an image. A huge explosion suddenly erupted in front of Jackalman. The mutant screamed and leaped back, trying to avoid it. But it wasn’t really there. For as soon as Tygra gained the Thundertank and had pulled himself inside, the mirage vanished. Tygra heard Jackalman roar with anger. But it didn’t matter anymore. The Tank’s engines caught and Tygra groaned in pain as the Thundertank shot off across the rough terrain. Tygra ground his teeth together as he shifted the Tank into a higher gear and programmed it for Cat’s Lair. The new Tank program was coming in quite handy. With a moan, Tygra lay back in his seat, cradling his right shoulder and trying to ignore the searing pain that attacked his chest and side. He had Vultureman’s notes. The Thundertank hit a few bumps in its path. Tygra’s breath caught. There was something wrong. The pain was intensifying in his chest. His left hand clutched at his uniform, trying to determine if he’d been hit with any shrapnel from the explosion. He looked down at his chest, something he hadn’t done yet, and saw blood. He tipped his head back against the seat and groaned.

As if things couldn’t get worse, through the windows of the Thundertank, Tygra caught a glimpse of Jackalman aboard a Skycutter. The angry canine was positioning to disable the Thundertank’s main engine. Tygra readied himself and then reached for the weapon controls. He needed both hands for this. With his shattered right shoulder tearing through ligaments, he opened fire on the mutant. He missed, but his shot had forced Jackalman to readjust his course. Tygra fired again, not allowing the mutant any time to return fire. Jackalman wanted Tygra alive. At this point, he couldn’t fire without destroying both the Thundertank and the Thundercat inside. Though I might finish myself off before he gets to me, Tygra thought grimly, feeling pain knife through his chest again. The Thundranium had already weakened him.

He wouldn’t last much longer. He reached for the communication controls. He didn’t want to get the other Thundercats involved in this, but he couldn’t defeat Jackalman on his own. But Jackalman suddenly let loose a series of shots, knocking the Thundertank around and shorting out parts of the control panel. Tygra screamed as he was knocked to the floor and landed on his right side. Pushing himself up, he stared in shock. The communications system was now inoperable. But the shift in position had done something inside. He felt a lung give. Fortunately, his mind had put up with enough abuse today and darkness took him.

* * * *

"Noooooo!" Cheetara screamed and clutched her head. The other Thundercats in the control room leaped to their feet.

"What’s wrong, snarfer, snarfer? Are you okay?" Snarfer jumped up and down on his tail, trying to get a look at Cheetara’s face.

"Cheetara, what is happening?" Lynx-O said, placing his hand on her shoulder.

Cheetara tried to shut out the images and the pain from her mind. "Tygra," she finally gasped.

"What about him?" Lynx-O pressed.

"In the Thundertank. In pain. In terrible pain. And Jackalman," she grabbed her head again.

"Snarfer, get Pumyra, Wiley Kit, and Wiley Kat. Tell them to take the Feliner and go to Tygra’s aid. He’s in the Thundertank." Lynx-O turned back to Cheetara. "Where? Where, Cheetara?"

Cheetara shook her head. "I don’t know," she managed. "Somewhere between here and Castle Plun-Darr." Snarfer didn’t wait any longer. He dashed out of the room. Cheetara groaned and then tried to stop her trembling. The image had come upon her so quickly. She could feel Lynx-O next to her, ready to help her if she needed it. She sighed and finally relaxed.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes, just weak. I don’t think I’ve ever had an image that vivid before."

"You say you saw Tygra in the Thundertank. Did you see anything else? How was he hurt?"

Cheetara struggled to remember, but the image was fading quickly. Finally she gave up. "I don’t know. I remember pain in the chest and the shoulder, but I don’t remember anything else."

"Was it a dart?"

Cheetara shook her head. "I don’t know. I don’t think so, but I can’t be sure."

Lynx-O left her side and went to the communications panel. She could hear him trying to call the Thundertank. But he received no response. She then heard him switch over to the Feliner. "Pumyra, what is your status?"

"We just barely left Cat’s Lair. We’re proceeding on a course to Castle Plun-Darr."

"Is there any sign of the Thundertank?"

There was a pause. This time it was Wiley Kat who answered. "The sensors just picked it up. We should reach it in a few minutes."

"There’s a Skycutter circling it," Wiley Kit added. "And the Tank doesn’t appear to be moving."

"We’re going to full throttle," Pumyra announced.

The Feliner tore through the air. "There," Wiley Kit shouted.

Below them, Jackalman had landed the Skycutter and was walking triumphantly toward the Thundertank. It was motionless. Pumyra dipped the Feliner and they dove. Jackalman jerked his head up, startled. Wiley Kat fired a few warning shots and Jackalman scampered back to the Skycutter. He took off and headed back to Castle Plun-Darr.

As soon as the Feliner landed, Wiley Kit and Kat were racing toward the Thundertank, even as Pumyra was calling them back. Opening the top, Kit gasped. "Tygra?"

Pumyra pushed the two kittens out of the way. "No," she whispered. She jumped down into the tank. "Tygra, if you leave us we’ll never find a cure." She quickly checked his vital signs, paused, then checked again.

"Is he changing?" Kat asked softly.

"No," Pumyra said. "No, he isn’t. It’s something else. We’ve got to get him back to the Lair."

She looked wildly around. There was no sign of mutants. She studied Tygra again. He was obviously suffering from internal injuries and moving him would only make them worse. But they couldn’t leave him. "Okay, Kit and Kat, get his feet. I’ll take his arms." The Thundercats got into position and Pumyra lifted. She immediately dropped him. "Stop, stop!" she shouted. Checking again, she found the shattered shoulder. Gritting her teeth, she clasped his upper body, trying to avoid the shoulder joint. "Okay, let’s try this again."

It took quite a bit of grunting and effort to get Tygra out of the Thundertank and into the Feliner.

But it was accomplished. They secured him in the back of the Feliner. Kat ran back to the Thundertank to make sure they hadn’t left anything and discovered the pile of papers. "So this is why he went," he muttered, flipping through them. Finding nothing else, he sprinted back to the Feliner. Pumyra fired the engines and they soared back to Cat’s Lair.

"Mission accomplished," Pumyra radioed.

"Is he okay?" Cheetara asked.

There was a quick pause. "I think he’ll make it. He wasn’t hit by a dart, but he underwent quite a battle. There are burn wounds, internal bleeding, one shattered shoulder, and I think we can add a punctured lung. Have a stretcher waiting when we get in."

* * * *

After an hour, Pumyra emerged with a verdict. The Thundercats looked at her expectantly. "He’ll pull through. I don’t know how he survived, but he’ll make it. He was hit by a Thundranium cannon at least once, had something extremely powerful blow up in his face, it looks like he crashed through a wall, and who knows what else happened. Somehow he broke his shoulder. He then used it excessively." She shook her head. "His lung will be okay and so will his shoulder, providing he doesn’t move it for a while. What could possess him to do something so stupid?"

"I don’t know. Is he awake?" Cheetara asked.

"No. I made sure of that. I don’t want him awake for another few hours, at least. It’s crucial that he doesn’t try anything strenuous for the next little while, and that was the easiest way that I could think of to restrain him."

Wiley Kat then cleared his throat. "Um, I think I know why Tygra went to Castle Plun-Darr."

Everyone looked at him expectantly. "There were some papers in the Thundertank. I put them in the lab. They were Vultureman’s notes on the chemical formula."

Pumyra’s eyes lit up. "You said they’re in the lab?" Wiley Kat nodded. "Cheetara, could you check on Tygra once about every hour? Just to make sure he’s sleeping all right? And when he wakes up, make sure he stays confined to his bed?"

"Of course."

Pumyra thanked her. "I’ll be in the lab if anyone needs me." She took off down the hall at a quick jog.

* * * *

The first thing Tygra felt as he regained consciousness was pain. It was dulled, proof that he was under the influence of painkillers, but it was definitely there. Tygra used this pain to sharpen his mind and gradually pulled himself awake. His ears caught the sound of various monitors. His nose told him he was in sickbay. How had the Thundercats found him? Tygra opened his eyes.

He was firmly strapped to one of the beds. His chest was tightly bound and his right shoulder was completely immobile. He turned his head and found himself beset by a tremendous headache. His left arm reached out and felt for the straps that held him to the bed. This was probably Pumyra’s doing. He fumbled around and finally found the buckle.

"Tygra!"

Tygra jerked his head at the sound and instantly regretted it. He squeezed his eyes shut, counted to ten, and then opened them again. "Cheetara, what is going on?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing," the cheetah scolded, coming forward and removing his hand from the buckle. "What were you thinking?"

"When?"

"When you went to Castle Plun-Darr. Didn’t you promise me that you wouldn’t do anything stupid without help?"

Tygra gritted his teeth. "I didn’t do anything stupid. I did something necessary. That doesn’t count as stupid."

"May I inform you that while you do possess a great amount of skill, you are not invincible?

What would have happened if they had killed you?"

"They didn’t want to kill me," Tygra said, dodging the question. "They wanted me alive."

"Okay, what if you had been infected? What if we had to put you downstairs with Lion-O, Panthro, and Bengali?"

"What about it?" Tygra grumbled, not wanting to get into an argument.

"We’d have Pumyra working by herself, we’d be down one more Thundercat, and we’d have no where to put Vultureman. Add to that, you’d have shortened the food rations."

Tygra closed his eyes and started to say something. Suddenly his eyes snapped open. "That’s it," he said softly. "That’s so simple." He fumbled for the buckle again. Cheetara grabbed his hand.

"Sorry, Tygra, but you’re not going anywhere today."

"Cheetara, I don’t have a choice. How long will it take me to recover? We don’t have the time to spend. Let me up." He reached again for the buckle and succeeded in taking it off. He started on the next one.

"Pumyra will have my head on a platter," Cheetara told him.

"Tell her I escaped."

Cheetara snorted. "In your condition? You’re lucky if you’re even able to walk."

As Tygra swung his feet off the bed, he discovered this was not an exaggeration. Taking a breath, he turned to Cheetara. "Can you do me a favor? I need a couple darts from the lab and I need to get downstairs."

Cheetara watched him for a minute and then slowly nodded. "Just promise me you’ll let me come this time."

"Fine, you can come. Hurry."

"You don’t need to tell me that," she said with a grin. She was off like a shot. A few minutes later she was back. "Pumyra is working like crazy over those notes of Vultureman’s. I stopped to ask her if there was a cure. She said no, but that she had finally figured out most of the chemicals. But that she wasn't closer to finding a cure."

"No, I wouldn’t think so. I looked through them myself. There wasn’t anything resembling a reversing agent. Okay, let’s go downstairs."

Cheetara slipped an arm under Tygra’s left shoulder and the two left sickbay. They were halfway down the stairs when Cat’s Lair suddenly shook. Tygra cried out as he was jolted against a wall. Cheetara sat him down and sprinted for an intercom. "What’s going on?"

Lynx-O responded. "We’re under attack! It’s the mutants!"

Cheetara cursed under her breath. "Tygra, I’ve got to get up there."

"Fine. I’ll make it down there by myself."

"No. No, just stay here."

"Cheetara, we don’t have the time."

Cheetara flung her hands up in exasperation. "Why do you have to be so stubborn? Alright, let’s get downstairs." She hoisted him to his feet again, paused as he groaned and tried to steady himself, and then set out for the basement. Just before entering the prison block, Tygra stopped her. "Go. You’re needed in the control room."

"If you think I’m just going to let you walk in there in your condition—" Cheetara stopped. Tygra had suddenly altered. Before her, he stood straight and tall without a trace of injury. "And how long do you think that image is going to last?" she demanded.

"Long enough," he told her.

She watched him for a while and then caught herself as Cat’s Lair shook again. Tygra’s image wavered, but stayed. "You’re hopeless," she muttered as she turned away. Within seconds, she was gone. Vultureman looked up at Tygra’s entry. It was still a bedlam with the three cats roaring at each other. "Awwwk, have you come to get me out of this zoo?"

"No," Tygra answered. "Unless you meet a couple of demands."

"What demands?"

"All right buzzard," Tygra said. "You’ve got a couple choices." Tygra opened Vultureman’s cage door and let himself inside. He took a seat on the bench that protruded from the wall. Vultureman waited expectantly. Tygra held up one of the darts. "See this?"

Vultureman smiled. "I see you have one."

"Yes, I do. But I’d wipe that grin off your face really fast. I’m about to infect myself. If you haven’t noticed, I’m in the same cage you’re in."

Vultureman turned pale. "Are you crazy?"

"Yes, maybe I am. Now, you can either let me do this or you can help us search for a cure."

Vultureman started to bluster. "There is, awwwk, no cure."

"Have you tried to find one?"

"Kind of."

Tygra glared at him. "Well, you better try harder. Because the cats down here are getting hungry. I don’t know if I could eat all of you, but I don’t think the others will have any trouble finding mouths to eat the rest of you if I don’t."

"You’re not serious. You can’t do that. It’s against your, awwwk, stupid code."

"Yes, it is. Which is why I can’t just feed you to Panthro over there. But as a jungle cat, I don’t have any code to obey. There’s nothing stopping me."

"I don’t have any of my notes with me. I don’t remember the chemicals."

Tygra laughed. "Don’t let that stop you. Pumyra has almost finished deciphering your notes."

"What?"

Tygra grew serious. "The choice is yours. We can’t feed everyone down here. You are the obvious solution. Either you change them back or you become the next meal."

Vultureman stuttered for a while. Tygra raised the dart over his bound right arm, thought Vultureman couldn’t see that it was bound. "No! Fine, I’ll help you."

Tygra smiled and let himself out of the cage. "Good. I’ll send down copies of everything we’ve come up with so far. If you need any experiments run, don’t hesitate to ask. And you’ve got about a week before we run out of meat and have to resort to alternatives." Vultureman grumbled, but Tygra didn’t hear him. His strength was failing fast. He would be unable to maintain the illusion for much longer. Pain was beginning to overwhelm his mind. Tygra quickly made his way to an intercom. Pumyra answered.

"Pumyra, Vultureman needs copies of our schematics."

"Tygra! What are you doing down there?"

"Don’t ask right now. Just get them down here." He cut her off before she could say anymore.

He looked back at Vultureman. "One week," he warned. "After that, you’re table scraps." Tygra barely managed to make it out of sight before he collapsed again.

* * * *

Pumyra snapped the last buckle tight and stepped back to inspect her work. "Tygra, I’m sorry I had to do this to you. But you almost killed yourself," she said to the unconscious tiger. It had taken her hours to repair the damage that Tygra’s expedition to the prison cells had caused. At first, she didn’t think he would make it. She still had some lingering doubts about his condition. But at least now he would be unable to free himself. She turned as someone entered.

"I heard he’s out of surgery," Cheetara said softly.

Pumyra nodded. "He’s not awake yet." There was an awkward silence. Finally, Pumyra had to break it. "Why? Why did you let him do it?"

Cheetara stared at the tiger. "I don’t know," she said at length. "He acted like he knew what he was doing. And things were starting to looks so horrible, that I just, I don’t know," she trailed off.

"He nearly died," Pumyra said. "I still don’t know if he’s going to pull through. I’m worried about his internal injuries. If he moves around anymore," she shook her head. "I suppose there’s good news," she continued after another awkward pause. "He’s got Vultureman working on a cure. I don’t know what he did down there, but Vultureman is working frantically for a cure."

"We’re lucky we managed to drive the mutants off," Cheetara commented. "This extra time might be just what we need."

"I hope so," Pumyra murmured.

Cheetara was about to add something when she suddenly doubled over. Pumyra grabbed her and tried to assist. "Mutants," Cheetara hissed. "Tell Lynx-O. At the Tower of Omens."

Pumyra waited no longer. She raced into the control room where Lynx-O was at the Braille board with Snarf and Snarfer on auxiliary monitors. "The Tower of Omens is under attack!"

"What?" all three said in unison.

She paused to catch her breath. "Cheetara just saw it."

Lynx-O hastily activated controls at the Tower through his Braille board. Mutants swarming around the Tower came into view on the monitor. "I’m going to try and activate the Tower’s defenses through Cat’s Lair," Lynx-O announced. "Snarfer, I need main power redirected to communications. Hopefully, the Tower will keep the mutants occupied and away from us."

"You got it," Snarfer announced, fingers flying over the boards.

"Snarf, I’m diverting sensors to you. Keep an eye on Cat’s Lair but keep main monitors on the Tower."

"Right, Lynx-O, snarf."

"What can I do?" Pumyra asked, slipping behind a console.

"Keep communication clear and on the Tower. Here we go."

Snarf kept the main monitor on the Tower of Omens and they could all see the defensive laser beams begin to fire at the Skycutters and Nosediver that circled and shot.

"All right! Now we’ve got them! Yep. They can’t mess with the Thundercats, no sir." Snarfer shouted happily.

"Not for long," Snarf warned. "They’ll soon figure out that no one’s in there. The defensive shots aren’t coordinated, snarf. Once they figure that out, they’ll come right back here."

"But until then, we can tire them out as much as possible," Pumyra said.

"And that’s what we’ll have to settle for," Lynx-O announced. "Look!"

Slithe’s Nosediver had slipped through a gap in the laser shots and was already blasting away at the Tower’s foundation. A moment later, Jackalman found another gap in the lasers and moved to help Slithe. Monkian took cheap shots from a safe distance away. "We’re lucky Slithe has his arm in a sling. I’m guessing that’s from when Tygra grabbed the plans, snarfer, snarfer. Otherwise, he’d have already forced the main entrance." Snarfer suddenly jumped. "We’ve got a power surge coming from somewhere. Lynx-O, communications can’t handle this."

"It’s feedback from the tower. We established a direct link. I’m cutting, now."

Snarfer watched the monitors on his board return to normal. "Better, but how will we control the Tower’s defenses?"

"We still are," Pumyra told him. "But much less efficiently."

"Oh no, snarf. Jackalman’s inside the Tower!" Snarf watched in horror Slithe blasted the main door open and Jackalman slid his Skycutter in through the entry.

"I guess the game’s up," Pumyra muttered.

"They’ve got all their eggs in one basket, and we’re it, snarfer, snarfer."

* * * *

"How is he?" Wiley Kat asked Cheetara.

Cheetara looked up, startled. "Well, I’m not sure. I don’t profess to have any reliable medical knowledge. But judging from the monitors, he’s still one sick Cat."

Wiley Kit padded through the door after her brother. "Is he going to get better?"

"Of course, kitten," Cheetara said. She wished she could feel the confidence she was showing.

"Tigers are a tough breed. It takes more than a few broken ribs and a fractured shoulder to get them down."

"Pumyra didn’t seem to think so," Wiley Kat observed.

"Pumyra’s supposed to be worried," Cheetara answered, thinking quickly. "If she doesn’t worry enough, maybe something could go overlooked. If you’re taking care of something or someone, it’s always best to plan for the worst."

"That’s a rotten way to look at life," Kit commented.

Tygra suddenly groaned, surprising everyone in the room. Cheetara was instantly at his side.

"Tygra?"

There was another groan. The tiger managed to get his eyes open. "Ouch."

"Serves you right," Cheetara retorted. "Pumyra almost skinned me when she found out I let you talk to Vultureman."

"How do you feel?" Kat asked, moving to the bedside.

Tygra seemed to be gathering strength to answer. Cheetara hushed him before he could do so.

"No, don’t answer just now. You need sleep. You nearly died."

Tygra shifted his eyes in Cheetara’s direction, a questioning look in them. Cheetara nodded.

"Yes, Vultureman’s working on a cure. Whatever you said to him worked. That is what you wanted to know, isn’t it?"

Tygra nodded faintly.

"Good. Then go back to sleep. Do you need some more pain killers?" Tygra managed a noise that sounded like an affirmative. "Kit, ask Pumyra what we should give Tygra."

Kit hurried over to the wall and returned after a brief conversation. "Pumyra says nothing until she checks him. She’s afraid to give him any more because he’s overdosed as it is. And she’s really not surprised the pain woke him up. Oh, and she said the mutants took the Tower of Omens."

"They what?!" Kat shouted.

Cheetara simply nodded. "I expected it. We couldn’t hold the Tower from here. Now we’re their next target."

"Then we need a cure more than ever," Kat said.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Kit asked.

"Help me up," a faint voice called.

"Tygra, you’re staying right there," Cheetara ordered.

At thi