A/N: This is an introduction to some new characters, the Lightning Simians, that I got inspired to create by a story someone else wrote on a separate website about Lightning Dogs. I just happen to like primates, and that's the main reason I chose them for this story. I may (possibly) write more stories involving these original characters in the future, but I haven't yet decided what stories.
Disclaimer: I do not own ThunderCats, they are owned by Warner Bros. I do, however, own my OC's, the Lightning Simians.
LIGHTNING SIMIANS, HO!
LIGHTNING SIMIANS DRAMATIS PERSONAE
Bonobra – Bonobo, Noble Lady of the Lightning Simians who wields the Mace of Heraldry and the Cannon Shield.
Orangutara – Orangutan with a shield generator on her belt. She is wise and gentle, but also passionate. She carries a small stun gun.
Gorill-O – Gorilla with a gentle personality and great strength, but low wits and relatively slow speed, except when driving his Lightning Jet, a very fast landspeeder.
Chympro – Chimpanzee with remarkable speed. His armored-glass spear can cut a path through whole lines of foes.
PygmyMarmo and PygmyTamar – The Lightning Babes, a Marmoset and a Tamarin, are crafty and swing through the trees with great, natural skill. Their tails are prehensile. They use lassos and trick capsules to outwit or confuse their opponents.
Aye-Aye – A Prosimian, an Aye-Aye Lemur, who serves as butler and companion of the Simians. He's a nervous wreck, but can show courage in the unlikeliest of situations. He also speaks his mind a lot.
Coloba – A deceased Colobus Monkey, mentor of Bonobra and former Lady of the Lightning Simians. She lives on in spirit form and gives wise advice to Bonobra from beyond the dead.
Gibb-O – Lar Gibbon, blinded by a flare, but his other senses are very sharp. His wisdom is equal to that of Orangutara.
Baboonra – Chacma Baboon, healer, and mother figure of the group. She cares greatly for the Lightning Babes.
Man-Drilli – Mandrill sculptor, smith, and weapons specialist. He's ambitious, but not selfish.
Bush Baby – Prosimian Bush Baby, semi-cousin of Aye-Aye and assistant butler. She's feisty and brash, which can frustrate Aye-Aye, but also very honest.
Somewhere on the planet Third Earth, in a place not too far from Castle Plun-Darr and the Treetop Kingdom of the Warrior Maidens, a ship had landed, or rather, crash-landed, and it was a bit of a mess. However, eleven stasis pods had survived the crash, and there were living creatures inside of them, living, sentient creatures.
One of the smaller pods opened by itself, and out came a creature much like a lemur. He had long nails and big eyes and ears. He looked around intelligently, and said to himself:
"Aye-aye! Where are we? Did we just end up near a tropical forest? Well, that's a relief! I was afraid we were going to land in someplace cold at first. Aye-aye, aye-aye!"
He looked around the place, searching for a couple of particular pods. He found the smallest pod, and clawed at its space-proof seal, making it open. Inside came out another little creature that looked like a bush baby. She looked like she had been having difficulty getting out of her pod. She climbed out, and Aye-Aye, as he was called, looked her over.
"Aye-aye, aye-aye! Are you feeling okay, Bush Baby?" Aye-Aye asked.
"Aye-aye! As okay as I ever will, cousin Aye-Aye!" said Bush Baby, "Oh, boy! I feel like I can take on the world right now!"
"Don't be too fast to say that, Bush Baby!" admonished Aye-Aye, "We don't even know what world we're on yet. Best to let the Lightning Simians figure that one out for us when they wake up. Aye-aye, aye-aye!"
"Aw, come on, cousin Aye-Aye," said Bush Baby, "We can take anything! You know that! And I can take any foe blindfolded, and with one hand tied behind my back!"
Aye-Aye sighed. "Really, Bush Baby," he said in exasperation, "When are you going to learn to control your passions? We need to keep our bearings around here, for goodness' sake! Aye-aye!"
"Aye-aye! I'll be fine, cousin Aye-Aye! If you think I couldn't handle this, maybe you shouldn't have let me come along for the ride!" protested Bush Baby.
"Aye-aye, don't tempt me, Bush Baby!" said Aye-Aye warningly. "Now come on! We've got to release the others, and I think we should start with Bonobra. She's going to have a lot of responsibilities as Lady of the Lightning Simians, and we'll need the help of the famous Mace of Heraldry, too. Aye-aye!"
Aye-Aye was the first to find the appropriate pod. He gave it a kick, and it started to open. After the hissing of escaping air had passed, a fully clothed, humanoid bonobo woman started to emerge from the inside. She was loosely carrying a silver mace, and she also carried a shield with a benevolent chimp's face on it.
"Bonobra!" said Aye-Aye, "How are you feeling? Aye-aye, aye-aye!"
"Ohh," she said, "I feel like I must have hit my head on the top of the stasis pod in the recent past!"
"Aye-aye! That's what happens when you age a little in the stasis pods," said Aye-Aye, "Remember what Coloba said to you before she died? Even though the stasis pods do slow down the aging process, some aging does take place."
"Yes," said Bonobra, looking at an image of herself reflected in the shiny metal of her pod. "I wonder where we ended up. This world, or at least this part of it, reminds me of our home world of Simia."
"Aye-aye! Yeah, it does look peaceful, but it could be dangerous, too. Aye-aye, aye-aye!" said Aye-Aye nervously.
"And I still say we can take whatever it throws at us, cousin Aye-Aye!" said Bush Baby, punching the air with her fists.
"Ooohh, I'd just like to see you try, little one, yessss?" said a slimy voice from nearby.
Bush Baby and Aye-Aye almost panicked and turned around. Bonobra did, too. There were four creatures standing there, all of them humanoid, and all of them also humanoid-animal hybrids. One was a reptile, one was a vulture, one was a jackal, and one was a monkey.
A monkey? Is this guy one of our own? Bonobra thought.
"Who are you people?" she asked, readying herself for battle, just in case. After all, the creatures were carrying weapons. "And why is a Lightning Simian threathening one of his own kind?"
"Hoo, hoo! What was that?" said the monkey man. "I don't even know what a 'Lightning Simian' is! I'm a Monkian. The Monkian! Their leader, even though it's been months since I last had any Monkians around me to lead! Hoo, hoo, hoo!"
"Aye-aye!" said Aye-Aye, peeking around Bonobra's leg, "What's a 'Monkian?'"
"Caw! What?" said the vulture in a hoarse voice that grated on Bonobra's ears, "You've never heard of the Mutants of Plun-Darr? Then you've never heard of me, Vultureman, or Jackalman, or Slithe, either, right? Cawwww!"
It started to dawn on Bonobra. "So," she said, "You're 'Mutants.' That must mean that you're humanoid perversions of wildlife!"
"Yessss," said Slithe, "And as Mutants, it's our vocation in life to plunder the innocent and destroy the ThunderCats!"
"Plunder the innocent?!" exclaimed Bush Baby, "You really are bad guys! Let me at 'em! Let me at 'em!"
"Aye-aye! Are you crazy, Bush Baby?" said Aye-Aye, "They outnumber you, and they're a lot bigger and stronger, too! Aye-aye!"
"Nyah! A baby, eh?" snickered Jackalman, "This should be easy, then. Even I can take out a baby."
"What!?" shouted Aye-Aye, "You're all a bunch of cowards, threatening to attack things weaker than you are!"
"Indeed," said Bonobra, "And I'm about to even the odds a little!" She raised the Mace of Heraldry to the sky.
"Hoo, hoo! A mace?" said Monkian, "I carry one of those, too. I'm not afraid of them! And I carry a shield like that, too."
"Ah," said Bonobra, "But you don't carry a mace and shield with the sacred properties of the Mace of Heraldry and the Cannon Shield, do you? Ho!" A blast of lightning shot out of the mace's tip and zapped Monkian's feet. The big monkey Mutant hopped from foot to foot in pain, and fell flat on his back.
"Cawww! Another mystic weapon, just like the Sword of Omens!" said an intrigued Vultureman. "Does it have its own magic eye, too?"
"I don't know how you guessed, Vultureman," said Bonobra, "But yes, it does carry the Eye of Simia. And it's about to bring you more trouble than you can handle, too." She raised the mace to the sky again and shouted her battle cry. As she did, the Mace became gradually larger and larger.
"Lightning! Lightning! Lightning! Lightning Simians! Ho!"
At the base of the hilt, a green "eye" became visible, and it shot out into the sky, forming a green symbol of a monkey high in the air. The signal awoke the other Lightning Simians in their stasis pods, and they leapt out of the pods, quickly assessing the situation and getting their own weapons ready.
"Huh? More of them?" said Slithe.
"Nyah! Maybe we should reconsider attacking them, Slithe," said Jackalman nervously, "Now they outnumber us, and besides, we-"
"I know what you're going to say, coward," growled Slithe, "And no, we're not backing out of this. Get them, all of you!"
As the Mutants readied their own weapons, they received more visitors. Suddenly, most of the ThunderCats came rolling or flying in on their vehicles. The ThunderTank, the ThunderClaw, the Space Boards, and the ThunderStrike all entered the Mutants' territory, presumably to enter battle with them, but they stopped in surprise when they saw the newcomers getting ready to fight the Mutants.
Gorill-O, the strongman of the Simians, engaged Monkian in hand-to-hand combat. Monkian, though, didn't want to risk it, seeing as Gorill-O was twice his size, and swung his morning star at him instead. Gorill-O hopped out of the way of the swing and grabbed the morning star from right out of Monkian's hand. With his immense strength, Gorill-O tore the morning star from its chain.
"Hoo, hoo, hoo!" said an alarmed Monkian, "Don't think you've beaten me yet, big boy!" He started to fire cannonballs from his monkey shield at Gorill-O.
"Whoo, whoo, hoo, hoo, hoo!" shouted Gorill-O, "Nobody calls me 'big boy!'" He used his big, fast hands to knock the cannonballs aside before they could hit him in the chest. Monkian kept trying, and every time he failed.
Then Bonobra stepped in and swung the Mace of Heraldry at the monkey shield, shattering it. It was amazing that Monkian's hand and arm weren't broken. Monkian panicked and started to run, but Bonobra let Gorill-O chase him down on his hands and knuckles, and toss him into the trees.
"Apparently, unlike you Mutants, we Lightning Simians never monkey around when we fight," he wisecracked as Monkian got tangled in a few branches.
Orangutara stood waiting for Slithe to swing his axe at her. She dodged it at just the right moment to perturb the Reptilian.
"Sssss!" hissed Slithe, "Hold still, you big lug!" He swung again, and the axe glanced off her shoulder. But to Slithe's surprise, she was neither hurt nor bleeding from the strike.
"Nice messing with you, lizard," she said, and fired her stun gun at Slithe. The big slimy reptile collapsed to the ground, dropping his axe. With the signature strength of an orangutan, Orangutara split the axe handle in two with her bare hands.
Baboonra and Chympro ganged up on Jackalman, who tried to hit them with his club, but to no avail. They used their super speed to run circles around him, making him dizzy. In desperation, he ran to his SkyCutter and tried to take off, but Chympro followed him and drove his invulnerable spear into the reactor of the vehicle as Jackalman took off. The reactor ignited, and Jackalman was catapulted across the land and into the trees with Monkian.
He fell out and tried to re-orientate himself, but blind Gibb-O stunned him with a touch of his finger. The dog Mutant fainted for a little while.
Vultureman had managed to get into his Flying Machine by this time. He flew above the Lightning Simians, looking for an advantage over them. Suddenly, the Lightning Babes, PygmyMarmo and PygmyTamar, leapt out of the trees and banged their bodies down on the Flying Machine's wings, one at a time.
"Two can play that game, monkey-kids," Vultureman said. He worked the controls of his Flying Machine, making its right wing tilt downwards the moment PygmyTamar leapt from his perch to bang on it again. PygmyTamar slid right off the wing and began to fall towards the lower trees.
"Baboonra!" yelled PygmyMarmo as she watched her brother fall from the sky, "You've gotta save him!"
"I'm on it, Marmo!" said Baboonra, running and jumping into the trees to grab PygmyTamar. She succeeded in catching him before he could hurt himself.
"Gee, thanks, Baboonra!" said PygmyTamar.
Vultureman looked for another target to aim at, but then, Man-Drilli swung from the trees and hit the wing of the Flying Machine with a big sledgehammer, putting a big dent in it.
"Caw! What?" Vultureman squawked, and then he did so again when he suddenly noticed the ThunderCats standing nearby, watching and ready to intervene if necessary.
"This is getting out of hand!" he said, "We're outnumbered, and outgunned! Retreat, Mutants! Regroup at Castle Plun-Darr!" He flew away, back to the Mutants' castle. Soon enough, the other Mutants followed him.
Lion-O laughed heartily for a moment as he walked up to the Lightning Simians. "Whoever you guys are, that was very impressive, the way you handled the Mutants of Plun-Darr!"
"Perhaps it was," said Bonobra, stepping up to him, "But now, who are you people supposed to be? Are you on the side of good? Because you're evidently not threatening or attacking us."
"Of course not," said blind Lynx-O, "We have no reason to attack you, particularly not if you oppose the Mutants. We are the ThunderCats of Thundera, the last known survivors of that planet's destruction, and we live and fight with our honorable Code of Thundera to keep Third Earth safe."
"Oooo," said Orangutara, "So that's what this planet is called. Well, we are the Lightning Simians from the planet Simia, another unfortunate world that was the victim of destruction. We live and fight with a code of our own, the Code of Simia. Its chief tenets are valor, love, sacrifice, and humility."
"That's fascinating," said Cheetara, "Because our own code stands for justice, truth, honor, and loyalty."
"Then I take it that you do live as a force for good, then?" asked Tygra.
"Absolutely," said Gibb-O, "It is important for some people in the galaxy to stand up for the idealistic things that others either cannot or will not stand up for themselves. Otherwise, where would goodness and peace be?"
"Gone with the wind, I suppose," said Panthro.
"What's your name, if I can ask?" Lion-O asked Bonobra. "You seem to be the leader of the Lightning Simians."
"I am," said Bonobra, "And I am Bonobra, Lady of the Lightning Simians. I wield the Cannon Shield and the mystic Mace of Heraldry. It's the most sacred weapon of the Simians, for embedded in its base is the incorruptible Eye of Simia."
"Wow. It's interesting to see how much we have in common," said Lion-O, and he introduced himself and all his friends, including Snarf. A few of the ThunderCats were watching over Cat's Lair and the Tower of Omens, but Lion-O said that the Lightning Simians would meet them soon enough.
"These are my friends and fellow warriors," said Bonobra, "Orangutara, the telepath and architect, Chympro, the fast one, Gorill-O, the mechanic and strongman, PygmyMarmo and PygmyTamar, the cunning Lightning Babes, Gibb-O, the wise but blind, Baboonra, the healer, and Man-Drilli, the blacksmith. And let's not forget our old allies, the Prosimians. This is our old friend and butler, Aye-Aye, and his semi-cousin, little Bush Baby. They come from the Planet of the Prosimians, and Prosimians have been allies of the Lightning Simians for eons."
"Snarf, snarf! Is that right?" said Snarf. "ThunderCats and Snarfs have been allied for about that long, too!"
"Aye-aye!" said Aye-Aye, "You think I'm a good butler, you should see me bake a cake! Aye-aye, aye-aye!"
"Snarf! I'd love to!" said Snarf, already taking a liking to the little Prosimian. "You should see me bake some apple pie, too! I'm great at it! Snarf!"
"Aye-aye! I love apple pie!" squealed Bush Baby, "If I wasn't so busy fixing the plumbing, I'd love to have some, too! Aye-aye!"
"Snarf!" said Snarf, "Your semi-cousin, if that's what she's called, reminds me a little of my nephew, Snarfer."
Aye-Aye laughed. "Then I guess he must be a pill from time to time, too!"
Snarf grinned weakly. "You don't know the half of it, Aye-Aye. Not yet, anyway. Snarf!"
"Lion-O," said Bonobra, "Perhaps I can convince you to help us get a foothold on this new world we've landed on. We need to make our own base, or bases, to live in and to keep watch over the neighborhood. We'd be glad to be your allies against these ghastly Mutants of Plun-Darr and any other enemies that may cross our path."
"I would be happy to," said Lion-O gratefully. "In fact, I think we'd all be happy to. Another group of organized allies and friends is always welcome on any world where Thunderians live and work. And I think that with some help from my friends, we can assist you in making your own home here, too. What say all of you?" Here he turned to his fellow ThunderCats.
Every one of the ThunderCats voted in the affirmative, making it unanimous.
"Thank you very much," said Bonobra, bowing to Lion-O.
"There's no need to bow to me, Bonobra," said Lion-O kindly, "Only those whom I have authority over need bow to me. However, I should warn you that the Mutants are not the only organized foes on Third Earth. In a sector called Dark Side, the Forbidden Territories, live a group of troll-like raiders called the Lunataks, from the Moons of Plun-Darr. Their fighting talents almost match our own. And in an isolated desert some distance from here, lives Mumm-Ra, the Ever-Living, an immortal mummy and sorcerer with ultimate evil powers. He's the most dangerous and unstoppable of them all, and he and the Ancient Spirits of Evil have been trying to destroy us, and the Eye of Thundera, ever since we got here. Sometimes they came dangerously close to succeeding. And I imagine that when he learns of your presence here, he might want to do the same to the Eye of Simia."
"Believe me, Lion-O," said Orangutara, "We always prepare ourselves for any type of bad or evil crisis wherever we go. We'll be ready to face this Mumm-Ra when we meet him, as long as you can tell us what you know about him and his powers. And we seldom underestimate our opponents, as well. We believe that any foe could have any amount of offensive strength."
"That's good to hear," said Tygra.
"Now, why don't we stop talking on the Mutants' doorstep and get back to Cat's Lair, where we can arrange to make a good home and effective technology for you to match us and our enemies?" asked Panthro.
"Sounds good to me," remarked Gorill-O.
"Yes, why didn't I think of it, myself?" mused Lion-O. "Come on friends, new and old, let's get going."
On the way back to the Lair, Snarf and Aye-Aye weren't the only new friends to become close quickly.
"Hey, do you kids know any good games we can play together, just for the fun of it?" asked PygmyTamar.
"I think we do," said WilyKat uncertainly. "Although we're not used to playing them with monkeys."
"Sure we do!" said WilyKit. "They don't have to be Cats to play good games with us. Besides, the more, the merrier!"
"That sounds great!" said PygmyMarmo. "I don't suppose you guys can swing through the trees like we can? It's just a shame you don't have prehensile tails, like we do."
"Uh," said WilyKat, "We don't have tails at all, I'm afraid."
"Aw, that's okay," said PygmyTamar. "We can learn to adapt, if we have to."
In time to come, two new stations were created for the Lightning Simians: Simian Island, the primary home and base, located on a moated island near the Treetop Kingdom, and the Observatory of Heraldry, a lookout post for Lunatak attacks, not far from the Tower of Omens. Before long, some of the ThunderCats' allies became allies of the Lightning Simians, too, especially the Warrior Maidens, and Gorill-O, with help from Man-Drilli, built a few vehicles for the Simians to use, too, such as the Lightning Jet landspeeder. The Lightning Babes borrowed Space Board technology from the ThunderKittens to travel fast in places where they couldn't swing through the trees.
Eventually, they were introduced to Mumm-Ra and the Lunataks, as well as some other foes, but as the days and weeks passed, all their foes soon learned to fear the Simian Island as much as they feared Cat's Lair. And maybe, one day, the Lightning Simians and the ThunderCats will be able to defeat these evil raiders and plunderers once and for all.
THE END