Disclaimer: All characters belong to their respective owners. Oh, and Happy Halloween.
Cheetara and Tygra's mouths were open agape. In shock and awe of the behemoth in front of them. The beast stood at over 360 feet, a dinosaur-like creature with gray scales, a row of sharp dorsal plates-sharp enough to impale his enemies, short but human-like claws and stubby feet. They could swear he resembled the lizard men but yet, something seemed ancient about him that he couldn't possibly be related. The duo stared at the creature's eyes, they were full of malice; utterly hatred for the sentient beings that somehow offender him.
"Are you seeing this?" Cheetara asked Tygra, clearly shocked.
"Why, are you?" Tygra sardonically responded.
The creature bellowed a mighty roar; it sounded like a cross between a siren and a lion-all amplified to eleven. The loudness of the roar was enough to even put the fear of God into both of them.
"This is way out of our league." Cheetara said, a bit intimidated by the sheer sight of the monster.
The beast's dorsal plates began to glow an eerie blue light. He opened his mouth and a blue glow began to form into a ball of some sort. Cheetara and Tygra stopped for a brief moment to stare at the apparent sight to behold. They did not stand still for too long though as upon the beam being fired on them, they immediately ran off. The duo ran as fast as they could before Cheetara herself realized she could easily outmaneuver the monster.
"This is stupid!" Cheetara sighed, exasperated that a certain thought escaped her.
Cheetara picked up Tygra and held him as if he were a damsel in distress. She ran at full speed with Tygra in tow just as the blast had hit the ground-creating a small crater in the process before leaving a trail as the blast continued to behind the two ThunderCats. Cheetara took notice of the blast and her eyes had open wider in shock. The blast dispersed before the great beast fired again. Only this time however, he intentionally fired at them but the trajectory was off and instead, the blast hit in front of them which ended up sending them flying back.
"Who are you?" Lion-O asked.
The man did not answer. His face was in the shadows but Lion-O could have sworn he saw sickly, dark grin on his face. A small chuckle escaped his lips.
Something about him was familiar. He heard stories about a figure of dreams who would come inside and take the souls of children. Although the source was always often coming from Tygra, who often just told them just to tease him. But even then, he heard stories second hand from some of the other cubs who had passed by the kingdom. Lion-O had heard gruesome details but most of the time, he just assumed these stories were told to get children to behave-keep them in line basically. But he could only stare in disbelief and horror at the sight that befell him.
A burned, deeply scarred man wearing a hat and strange clothing he perceived as, it had red and green stripes, dirty brown pants and shoes. The most notable aspect however was the razor glove on his right hand.
Suddenly, a feel of unease awoke inside the future king. He had met this man before, in a memory long repressed since his last encounter. When he was a young cub, he was already familiar with the stories told by Tygra. They had managed to scare him a bit as he went to sleep. But upon entering his dreams, he found himself in a peculiar location. An area filtered in red, he could feel himself sweaty due to the a series of tube-like objects and weird objects that emit the steam. He felt uneasy as he began walking. He took each timid footstep as he looked constant back and forth, front and behind. He had the dreaded feeling something may pop out. He anticipated nervously, something was about to go down. But he fell down the stairs by total accident; he had not seen them when he looked backwards for a moment.
Nevertheless managed to standup. He felt like crying but before he could shed one single tear, he heard a scraping noise. He whirled his head to the left as that was where he had heard the sound.
Nothing.
But then, he felt a surge of panic. A bladed finger had touched his face, he was caressed as the tip of the blade traced around his face. He was uncomfortable and snapped out of his trance and began running-narrowly avoiding the blade that had touched. Soon enough, he woke up. He did not say anything of the previous night but was still unnerved, he tried his best to hide his anxiety though. He nervously anticipated the Nightmare Man's return but he never came back. But some grizzly murders were heard around Thundera; mostly centered around the slums-mostly consisting of drug addicted teenage cubs or murderous thugs.
Nevertheless, the memories came flooding back.
"You!" Lion-O hissed.
The man could only reply with a smirk and chuckled softly.
Lion-O unsheathed the Sword of Omens from the gauntlet and brandished the blade-aiming at the man's neck.
"Look at you..." He grinned. "All grown up..."
Lion-O roared and charged at the nightmare man but he disappeared out of thing just as soon as he rammed into him. Bemused, he continuously looked around-on full alert. He whirled his head upon hearing his cackle laughter.
"Come out and fight me, coward!" Lion-O growled.
Suddenly, he felt his neck had been struck. The future lord of the ThunderCats got kicked in the neck. He somehow appeared from behind and managed to already gain the upper hand.
"Welcome...to my world!" He grinned. The man raised his right gloved hand, ready to strike. The future lord of the ThunderCats widened his eyes in shock at the weapon but rolled out of the way-nearly avoiding the incoming slash.
"I think you're going to be fun." He smirked.
Panthro was not having any better luck with the doll. The doll managed to crawl up to his face maintaining a form grip of his cheeks. Even then though, he managed to pull a knife from his back as it was held by the back of the overalls, Panthro managed to see the knife and managed to at least pull the doll away from his face. He threw him across the ground but the dolls instantly ran behind the Thundertank.
"You better not scratch it with your knife!" Panthro raced to the back of the vehicle only to find the doll gone completely. Panthro looked around in alarm, something was about to go down.
"Where are you?" Panthro growled.
He continued to look around, even going so far to check everywhere inside and around the Thundertank. Nothing was there, not in the cockpit, not in the back, it disappeared apparently. Did he imagine the attack? He knew that certainly can't be it because it touched him. He suddenly heard a soft chuckle. He whirled his head to the right to find the source of the sound. He took his nun chucks from the cockpit and examined his surroundings. Earlier they had set camp around a deserted area, not too devoid of plant life but not too much of it either. After the events that had occurred at Avista, they had set out to find the remaining stone. Everywhere they went, they had to gather supplies for food and water, sometimes they would find shelter. Other times, they'd have to make camp. Throughout their travels however, they'd often hear stories about the monsters that roam the Earth. Panthro and Tygra had expressed annoyance and skepticism regarding the existence. Panthro had heard about the legend of the winged creature that took the faces and body parts of soldiers to replaces his own. Tygra on the other hand just did not seem to buy the rumors based on superstition. Panthro just made a mental note to hit Tygra later as soon as the whole business with the doll is over.
"Where the blasted are you?" Panthro muttered quietly. He jumped as soon as he heard a sinister cackle for a brief moment. He rapidly looked back and forth. He began to sweat a bit. The thing may be small but it can fight back, hard. Which was why he had to be the one to strike back first.
However unbeknownst to him, the doll managed to latch onto the hood of the Thundertank. He had the knife in place of his right hand and ready to pounce. The doll had a sick grin on his face. His eyes in turn formed a maniacal expression on his face. However he and Panthro heard the snap of a twig.
"What?" The doll known as Chucky said out loud.
Panthro heard the noise but faced Chucky but before he could even react, he saw an incoming, imposing figure coming at him. All he could see was that his face was stitched up from others' skin and a buzzing weapon.
"He's got to be around here somewhere." Wilykat said as he and his sister walked through the forest.
"Why are we even following him anyway?" Wilykit asked out of bafflement given her brother's insistence on following the weird sack kid.
"Did you not see the obvious dead body in the bag?"
"He wanted us to follow him." Wilykat answered, further insisting on their pursuit.
"Yeah, for him to eat us."
"He still saved us."
"You don't understand, he didn't want us killed by one of the lizard men just so he can us all to ourselves." Wilykit then grabbed her brother's tail.
He turned to face her shouting, "Don't pull my tail!"
Wilykit ignored his protest. She said, "See, this is why girls are smarter than boys." She added, "We know when to get out of danger!"
WHACK!
A rock managed to hit directly on Wilykat's head. He turned around furiously-on the verge of snarling.
"HEY!"
The kittens saw the sack head kid waving at them before running off.
"Get back here!" He snarled before he ran out with Wilykit following her brother in pursuit, in the vain hope of stopping him from doing something stupid.
"Wait for me!"
It had taken a while, about five minutes tops but they managed to see him but from a small hill. They saw him enter a rather peculiar sight; a castle with gothic structure. A place that looked old and decayed but yet was somehow still standing. They see the child entering the castle but turned around to face them-giving them a small wave before going inside.
Curiosity completely got the better of them-especially Wilykit. With much ease, they entered the castle and the door creaked open. The place seemed like a mess for the interior which otherwise looked pretty fancy. A bunch of wild animals roamed about. They entered a few feet into the castle. They felt chills as they felt the cold air. Wilykit could have sworn she had heard something. A footstep maybe?
SLAM!
The door had closed shut. The noise startled them and turned around to see it shut completely.
"The door!" They cried out.
"I bid you welcome." They heard a voice from behind. They whirled around to a peculiar being. He had no animalistic qualities but was dressed nice and had slick, black hair.
He spoke with an accent. "But I must ask, who are you?"
The kittens could only look in fear. Somehow, the two managed to sense an evil presence from him. In response to his question, they hugged each other for possible comfort.
"This has gotten out of hand..."
An seemingly, decrepit, zombie-like being in bandages, red eyes, sharp teeth and a red cloak-resembling a mummy looked at his cauldron. He had been examining the situation before him. He had noticed not only the plights the ThunderCats had been experiencing by the monsters but so have his subordinates. A man in a white mask had been terrorizing Slythe and the chase had been continuing for hours due to the weapons having no effect on him while Pumyra, Addicus and Kaynar have met the Cenobites, beings from other worlds he was familiar with through hearsay. He had hoped that the monsters will not interfere with his plans on defeating the ThunderCats but did not count on what he deemed the source of the interference; a seemingly young boy with a sack on his head in orange clothing. His image appeared on the cauldron.
"Somehow he is responsible." Mumm-Ra observed. "But how?"
His eyes narrowed in irritation. "Whatever the case, I will not allow these beasts to best me!"
He clenched his fists in anger. "I will be the one to kill them!"
He began to chant, "Ancient spirits of evil, transform this decayed form into MUMM-RA! THE EVER LIVING!"
He transformed from his lank self to a more taller, muscular form-discarding the robe and bandages. He was now the size of an exaggerated bodybuilder, almost as tall as an orca whale. Bat wings formed from his back making him resemble a demon. He flew away to deal with the situation; it was now personal. The pieces were all coming to place, the monsters are heading for war.