As an added interest for people who are bored: my own random set of notes at the end of each part! Because my interests are that obscure, they need to be explained. Huh… maybe I should… nah.

5/6/2006?


Part One: Reluctance

(Jaga nodded solemnly to Serica. "I thank you, young lady, for agreeing to this."

"Yeah, whatever," she replied curtly. Tygra, only twelve, tried to pull away, but her grip on his hand was too strong. "Maybe I'm not the best person in the world for being relieved that I'll be rid of my brother."

Jaga looked her up and down. She wasn't much to look at right then; for a white tigress from a well-bred family, she was quite unkempt. Her hair, pulled into the usual pigtails, was nonetheless a horrid mess; there were stains on her purple suit from dirt, sauce, even chocolate (the last courtesy of Tygra); and it looked as if it had been put on directly from the dryer. On top of that, there were circles under her eyes, and she was wearing a sour expression. "I wouldn't be so quick to judge you on a little matter like that," Jaga told her. "You're just a responsible young woman who has found herself in the middle of a situation that's over her head." He looked down at Tygra, not unkindly, but there was a kind of sternness there that made the youngster stop squirming. "I'm sure that your brother will better appreciate just how much you've done for him when he's older."

Serica snorted, as if she were all too certain that, Thundercat or not, Tygra would remain a little jerk. "Whatever."

Jaga held his hand out to Tygra. "Come on, little one. We must be on our way to Cats' Lair."

For a split second, Tygra wanted to refuse. If he were taken to Cats' Lair to be trained as a Thundercat, it could all too easily be years before he was able to see his family again. He didn't want to leave his father, and he certainly didn't want to leave his little brother, Bengali, who stood sniffling on Serica's other side.

However, when he glanced up at Serica, he saw that she wasn't even looking at him. Of course, that only brought back all the horrid things she'd done. If the price of staying at Cats' Lair meant not seeing her for the next ten years or so, then it seemed reasonable enough.

He snatched his hand from hers and took Jaga's instead. He didn't look back at her, not even when she and Jaga bid farewell. Only when he heard Bengali start crying did he dare a glance backward; Serica was already walking away at a fast pace, holding six-year-old Bengali in her arms and letting him cry on her shoulder. Tygra tried to go back, if only to reassure Bengali that he wouldn't be gone forever, and found to his dismay that Jaga's grip on his hand was even tighter than his sister's.

"No, Tygra," Jaga replied. "It's hard enough for your sister and brother as it is; a long good-bye would only make it worse."

"I don't care about Serica, I just want to say good-bye to Bengali!" Tygra replied.

Jaga once again gave him that penetrating look. "All the more reason not to let you. When you are older, and more able to appreciate how much your sister has given up for you, then you will see them again."

"She hasn't done anything! She's just a selfish bitch."

"If you truly hate your sister, Tygra, then you're hardly going to like me." Jaga's look took on an almost evil appearance. "I'm going to ask that you not speak of her in such a way again, and I feel I must repeat myself: when you are older, you will be more able to appreciate just how much your sister has given up for you.")

Tygra woke up with a start. It took him a moment to remember where he was; the moon was shining in through the window, and it was possible to hear the trees outside Cats' Lair rustling slightly in the night wind. It was so different from the city life he grew up with; it was hard to believe he was the same person.

Has it really been that long? he wondered, sitting up in the bed and glancing out the window. It's been… over thirty years since that happened. And I only saw her twice after that. Father's funeral and…. He winced a little, remembering that the last encounter he'd had with his sister had resulted in a vicious fight that had alienated the two of them and had almost earned him Bengali's hatred. If Jaga had known just how old I would have to be before I could stop hating my sister, he never would have allowed me to go home that day.

He cautiously got out of the bed, careful not to wake up Pumyra, and tiptoed over to the cradle in the corner of the room. Little Tyri was there, curled up on her side and sleeping peacefully. Tygra reached in and gently touched her cheek. Tyri could be a downright nuisance at times, and she was barely a year and a half old. He found himself wondering just how much trouble an angry six-year-old must have been for Serica to handle, especially with a newborn baby to take care of at the same time.

I don't even know what I would say to her after all this time. Assuming she's still alive. Hah, and here I told Pumyra should I ever meet my sister again, I'd apologize to her for everything I did. Right. Serica would probably spit in my face, and truth be told, I wouldn't blame her.

Sighing, he went back to bed. He, Pumyra, and Tyri were heading off to New Thundera in the morning, and since he was driving, he needed to be fully rested. He didn't think it was possible for him to go to sleep for the next hour, but he must've been more tired than he thought, guilt or no guilt. As soon as his head touched the pillow, he was asleep again.

This time without dreams.


Meanwhile, on Plun-Darr, a strange event was taking place. The motors of a spaceship, hidden at the edge of the city, had been turned on and were running gently. It had been over fifteen years since they were last run, and were long overdue for a warm-up.

Rataro stood nearby, arms crossed, and looking as if he wasn't sure he should be pleased with himself, or annoyed. "I've tested the young Lord twice to see if he is truly worthy of what his father requests," Rataro was telling the quartet that stood in front of him. "Three times is the charm, they say, so don't be shocked if I happen to pay him a third visit, this time on the New Thundera itself."

The tallest member of the group, a wolf-man from the look of him, nodded briefly. "We understand your concern, Rataro. You value intelligence and persistence above all else, and Claudis agreed that an understanding at least be possible, if nothing else."

"He is not to know until the proper time. That way, they will both feel annoyed by it; that will give them some common ground right at the first. As it is, I still have some convincing to do on my part. Now, be on your way. I'm sure Jaga and Claudis await your return."

The quartet saluted Rataro, the youngest one doing so with a slight bounce, and quickly boarded the ship to leave Plun-Darr and head to New Thundera.


Lion-O and Bengali stood outside the Cats' Lair on Thundera, watching as the Feliner landed gently not far from them. Snarf was nearby, unable to keep still, and probably more excited than the other two. "A baby!" he was saying. He'd been repeating himself for the last hour, so Lion-O and Bengali were rather ignoring him. "There hasn't been a real baby in the Lair ever since Lion-O was born! I'll be able to take care of a baby again!"

Bengali and Lion-O glanced at each other and rolled their eyes. "That's assuming Tyri even likes you, Snarf," Bengali said. "Tygra told me she can be real difficult that way."

"Nonsense! She likes you, doesn't she? She'll just love old Snarf!"

"Just 'cause she likes me doesn't mean the feeling is mutual," Bengali replied with a slight growl. "I don't do very well with young kids…."

"What about the time that Herculus baby got dropped off on the Lair doorstep some years ago back on Third Earth, Snarf?" Lion-O inquired with a smile. "Surely you had fun taking care of him, right?"

Snarf actually shuddered in horror. "That wasn't fun! That was a nightmare! The kid nearly wrecked Cats' Lair, beat the crap out of the mutants, DID wreck Castle Plun-Darr, and screamed loud enough to break glass for two miles around! If I never see that kid again, it'll be too soon!"

"Is he exaggerating?" Bengali asked curiously.

"Only about the glass," Lion-O answered with a chuckle. "The kid only screamed loud enough to break the glass for one mile around the Lair…."

At that point, the Feliner came to a complete stop, and upon shutting off the engines, Tygra jumped out of the cockpit. "Lion-O, Bengali, it's great to see you again! Where are the others?"

"Panthro took Wily Kit and Kat out on a training mission, and as I'm sure you know, Cheetara and Lynx-O are covering for you two on Third Earth."

"Hi, Tygra," Snarf said as he ran past them towards Pumyra, who held a squirming little cub in her arms. "Pumyra, Pumyra, let me see her! Let me see Tyri!"

"Well, okay, Snarf, but she can be a real pest sometimes." Pumyra shrugged as she set the child down on the ground. "Show Snarf what you can do, Tyri. Go on!"

Tyri took two steps towards Snarf, and then unexpectedly squealed happily and started running.

"That's it! Come to Uncle Snarf!" Snarf said happily, his arms open wide to give the cub a hug. It took him a few moments to realize she'd run past him to latch herself onto Bengali's leg. "Nobody loves me anymore, snarf, snarf…."

"Tygra, could you please remove your offspring from me?" Bengali growled in annoyance.

"A few minutes won't kill you," Tygra replied with a grin. "Consider it payback for annoying me when you were little." He ignored Bengali's look of disgust and glanced at Lion-O instead. "Anything new going on around here?"

"Nothing important. There is another ship coming in later in the afternoon. Panthro mentioned it as being a little odd."

"How so?"

"The two Thundarians on board asked to speak directly to either Jaga or Claudis. They knew that Thundera had been destroyed originally, but were completely taken aback when they found out both Jaga and my father were dead. Panthro said they even looked a little worried."

"That's weird," Pumyra said thoughtfully. "I don't think it's normal for random Thundarians to ask to speak directly to any Lord of the Thundercats without so much as a 'by your leave'."

"There's that. Also, when Panthro offered to put them in contact with Jagara, the women said that she wouldn't know."

"Wouldn't know what?"

"They didn't say. However, they did agree to meet with us all after they landed, but they insisted that we do so out in the country, where no one will see us."

"It almost sounds like a trap," Tygra muttered. "Is there anything else?"

"Panthro said he only saw the two women on the tele-screen, but the scanners told him that there were four people on board, one of them either quite young or very short."

"You're not going to see them alone, are you?" Pumyra asked.

"No. Bengali and Panthro will be coming with me; I'd like it if you could come too, Tygra. That way, if it does turn out to be a trap, at least the odds will be even."


The ship had already landed. It was a rather attractive ship, in an evil sort of way; it was as black as sin, slender and sleek for speed, and probably just barely large enough for the four people living on board. "I pity them," Panthro said as they stopped the Thunder Tank not far from the ship.

"What makes you say that?" Bengali asked.

"Look how small that ship is; it's clearly meant for long journeys, yet there's probably less room inside there than there is in the Feliner. You know how annoyed we all get if there's more than five of us in the Feliner for an extended period of time. The group in that ship are either the best of friends, more patient than saints, or two short steps from slitting each other's throats."

There was about five minutes of total silence. "So… are we actually going to get out of the Thunder Tank, or just keep sitting here?" Lion-O suggested.

Almost reluctantly, the four of them jumped out of the Thunder Tank and headed towards the ship. They all stopped dead when the docking bay door of the ship slowly opened and lowered to the ground. Then two of the occupants slowly descended.

The first woman was probably from the golden cat tribes; it was hard to tell, as she was almost completely covered in a tight black suit from shoulders to toes, with a black scarf around her lower face so that only her bright green eyes could be seen. The only other clue as to her possible lineage was her hair, which was bleach blond, a stark contrast to her dark gold fur. She didn't appear to be armed, but the way she held herself hinted otherwise.

The second woman, upon stepping out of the shadows, caused Tygra and Bengali to gasp; if she noticed them do so, she didn't reveal it by her actions. She was a white tigress, in an outfit done entirely in shades of lavender and violet, hair pulled back into pigtails. She carried an enormous portfolio over her shoulder, and considering the way it swung, it was all too possible that whatever was in it was very heavy. Attention was drawn to her feet almost immediately; her boots had steel toes and heels, which clanked on the metal docking bay and thudded on the ground. Lion-O found himself pitying anyone foolish enough to get himself kicked by those vicious boots.

He stepped forward, glancing quickly at the Sword of Omens to see if it made anything of the situation. It didn't. "Greetings, I am Lion-O, Lord of the Thundercats—"

"Good shing, too, osah-wise sah intah-ropah in que-shun ood be in big tlouburu," the golden cat said in a horridly thick accent.

The tigress scowled at her friend before turning to the puzzled Thundercats. "Don't mind her, she speaks thickly at first on purpose. She's a bit of bitch that way."

Lion-O shrugged. "To each his own. And who might you be?"

The tigress bowed slightly. "Greetings to you, Lord Lion-O. I am Serica. My annoying comrade is called Venenum… though I suspect it isn't her real name since she can't even pronounce it properly."

Venenum ignored Serica, paying undivided attention instead to the Thundercats. She looked pleased about something, though it was hard to tell with half her face covered. "Ah, yorrin desuka? Iin desuyo…."

"Don't be rude," Serica snapped at her.

Lion-O cleared his throat to regain Serica's attention. "You asked for my father and Jaga when you made contact earlier. Might I ask why?"

"Because we wished to tell them that we completed the mission they sent us out on fifteen years ago," Serica replied. "Unfortunately, you're going to have to forgive us for not telling you the whole of it now. Just as you obviously don't trust us enough to scan our ship and find out we've four people in total, we don't really trust you to be who you say you are. Lion-O was, after all, a young boy when we last saw him."

Lion-O was startled. Somehow he'd thought she'd deny there were four people on the ship. "Alright, you've confirmed something we were wondering about, so why are only two of you here?"

Serica smiled. It wasn't a nice smile; something about it struck him as sinister. "We'll get to that later, youngster. Don't you want to know why we asked to see Jaga and Claudis? I'm sure you've been wondering about that."

"Don't change the subject!" Panthro interrupted. "Where are the other two?"

Venenum glanced her. "Doushite iya na no?"

"I told you not to be rude." Serica looked over her shoulder into the ship. "You heard the Thundercat Lord, Aequo. He's not Claudis, but you can't hide from him forever."

"And what of the boy?" a deep voice from within the ship asked.

"Bring him, too."

Not twenty seconds later, Lion-O saw why the other two had stayed on the ship. First came a young boy dressed in brown leathers and black boots that, upon first glance, seemed to be a Thunderian. When he stopped at Serica's side and looked curiously at the Thundercats, however, it became obvious that he was not a full-blooded Thunderian, but a rare half-breed between Thunderian and the peoples from Plun-Darr's moons. His skin was dark, almost black, which argued for a panther-clan parent, but his hair was white, his eyes yellow, and large ears stuck out on either side of his head.

Then came a mutant. An enormous mutant. By the looks of him, he could easily take on Mumm-Ra in a fist fight and probably not even break a sweat. He was of a type Lion-O had never seen, though he'd heard of them: a wolf-man. He was dark gray (with a tail; Lion-O had somehow come to the conclusion that only reptilians had tails), and dressed in blood red, with both an axe and a sword strapped to his back. He had steel plates over his elbows and knees with sharp blades on them, arguing for someone who was fully prepared to fight in close quarters, and fight dirty. Probably the strangest of all, the violet eyes he turned towards Lion-O were full of humor.

"Wha—what the hell is going on here?" Panthro spluttered.

"As you can see, two of our number are not Thundarians in the strictest sense," Serica said calmly, as if she wasn't at all bothered by being stuck in a ship with a mutant. She probably wasn't; neither she nor Venenum seemed tense in his presence. Quite the opposite; they were both quite relaxed. "Allow me to introduce Aequo Animo, a wolf-man from Plun-Darr," she motioned towards the mutant, who nodded his head towards the Thundercats, "and our trainee, Ater." She placed her hand on the boy's head. "We come as a quartet or not at all; if you tell Aequo or Ater to leave, Venenum and I leave with them."

Lion-O looked at the group curiously, all the while quite aware that the Sword of Omens was not in the least bit bothered by any of the four. "As a quartet… and you wished to see Jaga and Claudis… you're not Thundercats, are you?"

Venenum laughed viciously. Without missing a beat, Serica whapped her upside the head. "No, we're not Thundercats, Lord Lion-O. We're a select group of individuals trained in the gathering of information, watching suspected criminals, and, in extreme cases, eliminating someone that would otherwise be difficult to get rid of."

Panthro figured out what she'd said before the others did. "You're spies and assassins?"

"We prefer to avoid the latter, but in the long run, yes. And we answer only to the Lord of the Thundercats."

Lion-O tried to say something a couple of times, except that he couldn't think of anything. He glanced at the others to see what they made of this; Panthro looked as if he'd just walked into the middle of something he'd rather have never known, and Bengali looked as if he'd been doused with a bucket of ice water. Tygra's expression was strangely blank.

This is a fine kettle of fish we've fallen into, Lion-O thought. I can see Snarf having a heart attack already….

"I see this comes as a shock," Serica said, her nasty smile growing. "I'm sure you're going to wish to return to the Cats' Lair to discuss this strange twist of events with the other Thundercats. If that's the case, the four of us will retire to our ship, and wait for your return." She nodded to the others, and they turned to go back into the ship.

"Wait, Serica!" Bengali ran forward and stopped a foot or two from her. "I… I…." Whatever it was he wanted to say, he couldn't quite get it out.

Nonetheless, she seemed to understand, and smiled at him. "I've missed you, too, Bengali. But in this instance, business must come before pleasure. We can reminisce on old times later." And with that, she followed her comrades back into the ship.


"SPIES AND ASSASSINS?!" Snarf shouted, having the predictable heart attack. He was pacing around the council chamber while the others sat, stunned, in their chairs. "WHY DO YOU HAVE SPIES AND ASSASSINS AT YOUR BECK AND CALL?!"

"She didn't say that, Snarf," Lion-O said with annoyance, rubbing his forehead. "She said that they only answer to me. As for why, Jaga and my father aren't exactly around to answer that for us."

"I don't suppose you could ask Jaga to answer this question for us, could you Lion-O?" Panthro asked. "He does come to you after all…."

"Not always. It's more accurate to say he comes when he chooses, not necessarily when I want him to come. Besides, even if he did tell me that these four are on our side, would you believe him?"

The expected negative answer came from an unexpected source. "No," Tygra replied. "I wouldn't. I'd still distrust them."

"You're only saying that because of Serica!" Bengali snarled, standing up. "She could be ratified as a fucking saint by the Sword of Omens, Mumm-Rana, Jaga, and the Vatican, and you'd still claim she was evil!"

Tygra looked as if he would've gladly jumped over the table to beat the crap out of Bengali. Lion-O was glad when Pumyra interfered. "Sit down, Tygra, Bengali!" she snapped. Since she rarely raised her voice, it had the desired effect of getting Tygra and Bengali's attention. "This is not the place for squabbling like a pair of children!"

"You ever get that feeling where you wished you were somewhere else?" Wily Kit whispered to her brother. "I'm getting that feeling right now…."

As Tygra and Bengali sat down, Lion-O looked back and forth between the two of them. "Alright, the two of you seem to at least know who Serica is, and it seems to me she's the one in charge. So who is she?"

It was Bengali who replied. "She's our older sister, Lion-O. I know it doesn't seem like much coming from me, but she's got a good heart! She'd never do anything—"

Tygra's bark of laughter was just as acidic as Venenum's had been earlier. "Oh, she wouldn't, would she?"

"Stop that!" Pumyra gave Tygra a glare that made him wince and look guilty.

Snarfer, sitting on the windowsill, giggled, which caused everyone to give him dirty looks. He shrunk a little under their gazes, but didn't stop smiling. "It's just that we ought to be most worried about the wolf-man, and here we are arguing about the white tigress instead. It's ironic, snarfer, snarfer!" When their looks darkened, he scratched his head. "What?"

Lion-O cleared his throat, getting everyone's attention back to him. "Alright, so now we have two opinions on Serica, both of them radically different, but she's only one. What about the rest?"

"That Venenum strikes me as the main murderer if someone needs to be knocked off," Pumyra said. "If 'Venenum' is a name she chose, which sounds like it is derived from the word 'venom', then it seems to me she's more dangerous than the others. Probably a poisoner."

"What about the Luna-tak child?" Wily Kat asked. "Shouldn't we be worried about him? The Luna-taks were never anything more than big trouble."

"I don't think so," Panthro said. "First of all, I'd place some strong bets that he's a mixed breed. He's definitely got Thunderian panther clan parentage, possibly either of Ice or Psychic Luna-tak decent, or both. My personal guess is at best, he'll have strength, ice, fire, and psychic powers; at worst he'll have nothing. Second, he can't be more than four or five at the oldest."

Snarf grabbed Lion-O's arm. "What about the mutant, Lion-O, snarf, snarf?"

"I really don't know about him, Snarf. The Sword of Omens didn't seem bothered by any of the four, and the mutant seemed more willing to trust us than we were to trust him."

"I wish Lynx-O and Cheetara were here," Wily Kit said into the following silence. "They'd be able to tell immediately if these spies were dangerous to us."

"Unfortunately, they're not, and they're not planning on returning for another month. We're just going to have to do our best without them. Any suggestions?" Lion-O noticed with annoyance that it looked as if another shouting match was going to blow up between Tygra and Bengali. "And the next person who raises his voice above normal speaking level will find himself thrown out the window."

Tygra and Bengali froze for a moment, saw that he wasn't kidding, and sank back into their seats.

Snarfer was smiling again. "Well, we can't leave them outside where just anyone could find them. If they are on our side, then we can't exactly have random passersby spot the mutant or half-breed, and if they're not on our side, then wouldn't it make sense to have them close enough for us to keep an eye on them? Snarfer. You know the saying: 'keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer'. Especially mutants."

"We didn't do that for the mutants, the Luna-taks or Mumm-Ra," Snarf admonished his nephew. "Why should we do it now?"

"We didn't need to keep our enemies close to us on Third Earth, Snarf, because they did that for us," Panthro told him. "We practically couldn't turn around without running into one or more of them. And Snarfer's right; with that group right here under our noses, it'd be more difficult for them to hide what their intentions are from us. If they're against us, sooner or later they'll slip up and we'll catch them at it." He leaned back in his seat a little. "I'd really like to know what that mutant is doing here…."

"Not in the Lair," Pumyra said firmly.

Lion-O nodded, not needing to see the worried glance she sent in the direction of the napping Tyri. "I agree with you there, Pumyra. Not in the Lair. However, now that the wall has been built around the Cats' Lair, we can have them park their ship within the walls. That way, the general public won't see them, and we can still watch them."

"While they watch us," Tygra added ominously. "You heard Serica; they're just as likely to distrust us as we are to distrust them, and it's all because none of us really know them or vice versa."


Panthro was sitting in the middle of the control room, feet propped up on the control board in front of him, arms crossed, dozing. The four spies had been waiting for the Thundercats as promised, and were perfectly willing to move their ship into the front court area of the Cats' Lair. Panthro suspected that the four knew why they were being moved there, but no one had really said anything, so they all continued as if it were merely common courtesy.

His ears pricked up at the sound of a pair of running feet. He opened his eyes and looked at the door just in time to see Wily Kit and Wily Kat run into the room. "Aren't you two supposed to be in bed?"

"Tygra and Pumyra are having an awfully nasty argument," Wily Kat replied as the pair stopped beside him. "It's really kind of scary, Panthro; neither of them are the shouting type, and they're both practically screaming at the tops of their lungs."

"Mind if we stay with you for an hour or two?" Wily Kit asked. "By then they should've stopped, right?"

He sighed. "I figured this whole situation was going to be a problem. Yeah, grab a couple of seats." He removed his feet from the control board, uncrossed his arms, and started drumming his fingers on the board instead. "Tygra seems to be very upset about this whole thing; first he and Bengali blew up at each other, now he and Pumyra are at it. Remind me to get to the bottom of that and figure out what the hell Tygra's problem is."

Wily Kat went over to one of the empty chairs and sat in it, but Wily Kit perched on the edge of the control board. "I've never seen him like this, Panthro. It's like he really hates his sister, and I just can't imagine why."

"I'd be more inclined to think that he's angry with her for something," Panthro told her, "and whatever it is, he knows it but doesn't want to admit it."

Something on the control screen popped up, distracting them. "What in the world?" Wily Kat blinked. "How the heck did they do that?"

On the control screen, a box had popped up in the corner. In the center of it was: I ASSUME SOMEONE'S ON GUARD DUTY?

The three of them stared at it for a moment. "How are we supposed to reply?" Wily Kit asked. "This computer isn't set up to type messages—"

The words in the box changed. NO NEED TO TYPE ANYTHING. I CAN HEAR YOU FINE. I COULD'VE HACKED INTO THE TELE-SCREEN PROGRAM, BUT I DIDN'T WANT TO STARTLE ANYONE.

"That answers that question." Panthro crossed his arms again. "Alright, no need to ask who you are, just which spy you are. And how did you mess with this control system?"

I'M AEQUO, THE WOLF-MAN. AS WELL AS A WARRIOR AND A SPY, I'M A COMPUTER HACKER.

"Bet that looks good on a resume…."

"Why'd you hack into our system?" Wily Kat asked.

OH, AND I SUPPOSE YOU WOULDN'T HAVE DONE THE SAME TO US IF YOU HAD THE NECESSARY KNOWLEDGE? :D

Wily Kit giggled. "Okay, he's got a point there."

Panthro closed his eyes for a moment. "I don't suppose you could stop listening for a moment, wolf-man. Say about three minutes?"

I CAN. I MERELY NEED TO SHUT OFF THE PROGRAM. WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO DO SO?

"Just for three minutes."

Almost immediately, the box that had appeared on the control screen winked out. Wily Kit stared at that spot for a moment more, as if she expected it to return. "I don't suppose he can still hear us, can he?"

"He might, but that's not what I was thinking of." Panthro cracked his knuckles. "I don't want him sending opinions over to modify my way of thinking. I want to meet this Aequo." He grinned. "Let's invite him over for a midnight snack."

Wily Kit and Wily Kat looked at each other in shock. "But Lion-O said he didn't want them in the Lair!" Wily Kit hissed in surprise.

"True, but I think he meant more on a long term basis. We're only inviting this Aequo in for an hour or two, and we can keep a close eye on him during that time so he can't do any snooping. If worse comes to worse, we know the territory, and it'll be very difficult for him to try anything with three of us in the same room."

Wily Kat didn't look too certain. "I suppose… but what if he brings over something and expects us to eat it? Pumyra said that the Venenum woman might be the main killer, and it probably wouldn't be too difficult for her to poison a few cookies and tell this mutant which ones not to eat."

"So we don't eat anything he brings. If he keeps insisting, we'll know he's up to something."

Wily Kit ran her fingers through her hair. "I don't know, Panthro. We've never had to deal with a wolf-man before, and you yourself said he's much larger than S-s-slithe."

"It's always best to know your enemy, and what better way to give ourselves the opportunity to know him better?" Panthro felt his grin widen. "For example, we already know he's a computer hacker, and he mentioned something about being a warrior, too."

Wily Kit and Wily Kat still looked a little uneasy.

"Here, let me tell you why I think he won't try anything: whatever else this group might be, they're certainly not stupid. For example, Serica is the older sister of Tygra and Bengali. If she'd wanted to get the group an immediate spot inside the Lair, I'll bet you anything she'd have played on that relationship with everything she had. Bengali would've immediately backed her up, even if Tygra didn't. If Venenum had any connections either, she would've played them as well."

"But they didn't." Wily Kit thought for a moment. "As a matter of fact, you mentioned earlier that Serica didn't even acknowledge Bengali until he acknowledged her first."

Wily Kat nodded. "If they are trying to get into our good graces, that certainly sounds like a roundabout way of doing so."

"Exactly; whatever else they're up to, they're leaving us to decide for ourselves what to do with them. Serica even said that if we really don't want Aequo and the boy around, we just need to tell them to leave, and the whole lot would leave. The way she said it, I'll bet you my nun-chucks and the Thunder Tank that she meant it."

The twins looked at each other, shocked for a second time that night. "He's betting with the Thunder Tank," Wily Kit said. "He never does that…."

Wily Kat looked at Panthro again and shrugged. "Well… what do you want to snack on, then?"


It took about ten minutes of scrambling around. First Wily Kit and Wily Kat raided the kitchen for munchies while Panthro stayed in the control room, then the twins stayed in the control room while Panthro escorted the wolf-man into the Lair. After quick introductions, everything was prepared.

Aequo was glancing around appreciatively, while they headed towards the chairs Wily Kat had dragged into the center of the control room. There was a small table close enough for them all to reach with a pot of tea, four mugs, and a bowl of candy fruit. The wolf-man was even more impressive indoors than he'd been the first time Panthro saw him; Aequo had to actually bent down a little in order to pass through some of the doorways.

"This is an impressive fortress," he said appreciatively, turning one of the chairs around so he could sit on it backwards. His tail swished back and forth a bit. "There are no windows near the ground, the air ducts appear to be quite small, your intruder alert system is well hidden, and the floor plan seems to be just random enough to confuse enemies should they actually manage to get inside. Very good."

"It's not that good if you were able to see everything," Wily Kat told him.

Panthro thought the mutant would be insulted, but rather, Aequo looked amused. "I'm a spy, little one; it's my job to look for such things. Normally, either Venenum or I would be the ones to enter buildings without tripping alarms, but this place is built well enough that it would be very difficult for us. The windows are too far from the ground for me to reach, and the air ducts appear to be too small for Venenum. Serica probably wouldn't be able to enter as long as the intruder alert system was still on, not with it hidden as well as it is. Not to mention if any of us had to make a quick escape, we'd be at a disadvantage; with everything built somewhat randomly, there's no guarantee that the room we chose would have a window for us to get out."

While Wily Kit and Wily Kat tried to puzzle that out, Panthro could help but be impressed himself. "So, the three of you work as a team. And a well-oiled one, from the sounds of it; you seem quite certain of what your comrades can and can't do."

Aequo nodded. "There are plenty of times where we've been in situations that could've all too easily gotten us killed if we didn't work together. We have to know what we can all do in order to do our job."

"Could you give us an example?" Wily Kat asked. "I'm still trying to picture it…."

The wolf-man thought carefully for a moment before nodding. "Well, let's use something that has been done before: theft of important information. I can't jump very high, so if the windows are not close to the ground, I cannot get in. That means Venenum comes into play; she can jump higher than me, so she'll break into the building either via the windows or through the air ducts. If the ducts are too small, such as they are in your Lair, then we'd send in Ater instead, but he's so young we prefer not to do that."

"Ater is the boy, right?" Wily Kit asked. At Aequo's nod, she added, "Would he be able to fit into the air ducts in the Lair?"

"Yes; his mother was quite short, and his father was lanky and thin. It's not certain, but our guess is that even when he's fully grown he'd be able to fit into small air ducts, including those here at the Lair."

Interesting, Panthro thought. He's just practically told us that they have a way to break into the Lair using the boy. It's almost as if he's telling us so we can keep an eye out for it….

"However," Aequo continued, "neither Venenum nor Ater has the expertise to shut off an intruder alert system. So, let's say it's Venenum that got in; she's also been trained to spot intruder alert systems, and would avoid them to get to the front door and let me in. Once inside, I myself must avoid the system, and must also pinpoint where the computer powering the system is. After finding it, I can easily dismantle the system, which allows Serica to get in without tripping the alarms."

"Wouldn't those boots of hers give her presence away?" Panthro asked.

The wolf-man's tone became stern. "Don't let her fool you. She could sneak right up behind you wearing those boots, and you'd never know it until her steel toe hit you in the temple."

He might as well have told us to keep an eye out for that, too.

"Now, the reason for Serica is simple. I might be a hacker, but she's the one that knows what information to look for; she's always got her personal computer in her portfolio with her, and once I've used her computer to hack into the system, she can copy and save whatever it is that we need. Venenum watches our backs for us; if anyone happens upon us, he also happens upon one of the sleep gases that Venenum has with her. When everything's complete, Serica and Venenum leave, I reset all the systems, and leave by the front door, locking it before I close it." He smiled a little. "And if I'm feeling troublesome, I'll sometimes reset all the systems with different passwords…."

"You do realize you just told us how the four of you could sneak into the Lair, right?" Wily Kit asked.

Aequo grinned. It was a little unnerving to look at all those teeth. "There are numerous ways. I merely picked one." He reached out and picked up a cup of tea, breathing in the aroma briefly before taking a sip. "Mint tea. Good choice…."

"How do you know we didn't put something in it?" Wily Kat blurted out.

"Well, if you put something in it to put me to sleep or make me pass out, then I request that you not bang my head against anything when dragging me from one room to another. And even if you had poisoned it, which I doubt since you're all Thundercats, it wouldn't matter."

"An advantage to having that Venenum in your group?" Panthro ventured. Let's see if he confirms Pumyra's guess.

Once again, the wolf-man nodded. "Yes; Venenum is careful that way. Serica and I are quite immune to a fair number of poisons, Ater is still having his immunity to the most common poisons built up, and I can guarantee you that Venenum is immune to every poison that she could build up an immunity against. It can be very annoying, especially if the poison in question has a nasty taste to it." He paused in thought, as if something had just occurred to him. "I would strongly suggest that you do not try anything Venenum has prepared for herself. She never eats anything that has less than lethal amounts of poison."

I want to trust this mutant, Panthro thought, faintly surprised. That's a first. Usually I just want to beat them so badly they run off with their tails between their legs. But this one is almost so honest it hurts, and it seems he bathes regularly, which is a plus. He's not only giving us ideas of what they can do as a group, he's confirming our suspicions about each member of the group without batting an eye. Either this wolf-man is an excellent actor… or he's really on our side.

"Do you kill people?" Wily Kat asked bluntly.

Panthro resisted the urge to wince, though he wasn't too sure he succeeded. Someone needs to teach the Thunderkittens tact….

However, the mutant didn't seem bothered by the question, almost as if he had expected it. "Only when there is no other choice, and even then we go out of our ways to avoid doing so."

"How do you do that?"

Aequo sighed. "Let me explain something first. Our first priority is to be spies. The main goal of a spy is to get what is needed and get back to safety. Dallying for a fight is not only dangerous, but foolish. If I had important information on mutant attacks that I needed to get to the Lord of the Thundercats as soon as physically possible, I cannot stick around to kill anyone that gets in my way. There is always the possibility that I will lose, or that the information I'm carrying would be taken. Get in, get out, and don't get caught. That is how we work. Understand so far?"

The Thunderkittens nodded, and Panthro found himself listening with interest.

"There are only two situations in which we kill: in self-defense, or when the Lord of the Thundercats honestly believes there is no other choice. When it is in self-defense, it is because of a mistake. Venenum may carry poisons, but most of the vials on her person are sleeping gases or other similar concoctions meant to immobilize an enemy, not kill him. Serica never aims for the chest or head, where the slightest miscalculation could cause permanent damage or fatal wounds, but rather for the legs and arms, which can usually be healed up alright if a doctor is called fast enough."

"And you?" Wily Kit asked. "You've got that big axe and a sword."

"Like Serica, I aim for the legs and arms, or I use the flat of the blade. Normally, however, my size and a few fancy moves are enough to intimidate an enemy." He reached up, pulled the axe out of its holder, and held it out to her. She stared at it; Panthro had to admit to himself that it was a rather good-looking weapon. "Go ahead, take it."

"It's huge," she said, reaching out and taking the handle. "I don't know if I'm strong enough to—oh!" She held it easily in her hands, her eyes wide with surprise. "It's so much lighter than it looks!"

"And for good reason. The blade itself is as sharp as a razor, the steel is strong, and if I must pull back a blow, the entire weapon is light enough that I can do so without difficulty. Those holes in the blade are not merely for decoration; they leave a smaller amount of metal, creating a lighter weapon. My sword is of a similar make, though I can guarantee I try not to use it at all. The serrated edge is designed to create a lot of damage, and I prefer not to do that."

"Mind if I see?" Panthro reached out and took the axe from Wily Kit. He hefted it in his hand, liked the weight of it, and refused to give in to the desire to try a few fighting moves with it. Instead, he gently ran his thumb over the edge; the blade cut right into his skin with no effort, and he stared at the wound critically. "That is one fine edge."

"Why's it so sharp?" Wily Kat asked.

"Remember that I told you that the only two situations in which we kill are self-defense and on order of the Thundercat Lord, and that when we kill in self-defense, it is because of a mistake? Venenum, in her haste, will grab the wrong vial; Serica's aim will be off just enough to break the spine."

"Or your own calculations work against you, and the blade bites where it wasn't supposed to," Panthro continued. A nasty memory tried to intercede inside his mind, but he forced it away. "At least if the blade is sharp, it will be quick."

Aequo nodded. "Yes. Venenum might be lucky enough to administer one of her antidotes if she grabs the wrong vial, but if Serica and I mess up, we can't always remedy the situation."

There were a few moments of silence, and Panthro was bothered when he realized that the wolf-man had grown quite melancholy. Wily Kat opened his mouth to ask yet another question, but Wily Kit kicked him in the leg. "Don't you dare ask him!" she snapped.

"You didn't even know what I was going to ask!" Wily Kat snapped back, rubbing his leg.

"I do, too, and I'm not going to let you say it!"

Aequo's ears pricked up while the twins squabbled. "Siblings?" he asked, looking at Panthro.

"Unfortunately," the panther replied, handing the axe back to Aequo, who slipped it back into its holder.

"Hmm." Ironically, the arguing duo seemed to lighten the wolf-man's mood. "Never had siblings myself, and after all that I've seen, sometimes I'm glad it was so."

Panthro picked up on the different subject almost eagerly. He had a nasty suspicion Wily Kat had been about to ask how many Aequo had killed, and the subject of siblings seemed a welcome relief. "Serica's got siblings, doesn't she?"

Aequo chuckled. "You know she does. Two younger brothers." He took another sip of tea. "She and Tygra used to have some horrible fights before he was taken by Jaga to be trained as a Thundercat…."

"She told you about that?"

"No. I saw some of those fights."

Panthro felt the hackles rise on the back of his neck, though he wasn't sure why. "You weren't spying on them, were you?"

"How do you think Claudis and Jaga knew where to look for new Thundercats? The Sword of Omens knows better than to interfere in that regard, but it would occasionally give them hints, which would result in one or both of them sending a spy out to search for the person in question. Tygra was one such; his illusionary powers were strong enough that if he hadn't been taken in hand soon, it's all too likely he would have harmed himself and his family."

That explains something I'd wondered about, Panthro thought. I was being watched those few months before Jaga came for me. "Back to Serica, then. Since you watched her long before she was a spy, you've pretty much just told me that you've been a spy longer than her. However, it seems to me that she's the one that runs everything."

"And you'd be right. I have no leadership skills, and Venenum practically freaks out at the thought of being in charge. Ater's mother used to be in charge, but she died in childbirth, so Venenum and I bullied Serica into taking charge." He chuckled. "She nearly wanted to kill us for it, too. Because she's the 'leader', Ater automatically assumes that she's also his surrogate mother. If I remember correctly, she said something about someone cursing her to be saddled with troublesome boys one right after the other."

Panthro leaned back in his chair with his own cup of tea, ignoring the twins as they continued to bicker. "And he's a half-breed, isn't he? They're so rare; I can't imagine what it must be like to raise one. What's this little Ater like?"

"He's actually not too much trouble; Serica keeps him well in hand. He occasionally ices things, or sets something on fire by accident. He's got strength and some psychic abilities, but those tend to manifest only when he's terrified or angry. If he's frightened, he convinces the one frightening him that he isn't there; if he's angry, he tends to break things."

"Oh, that sounds like a lot of fun."

"I feel I must warn you, Panthro. Ater for the past year or two has been very interested in seeing what a Thunderian of the panther tribe is like."

"Why's that a warning?" Panthro thought for a moment. "Oh. He's probably going to try and pay me a visit, isn't he?"

"Yes. And while I'm certain you can handle fits of anger, I would suggest you not scare him. He can be annoyingly hard to find when he's frightened."


Lion-O looked at the written report Panthro had handed him. The Thundercats were sitting in the council room again, and Panthro and the Thunderkittens had just finished telling everyone everything Aequo had told them. To the Thunderkittens' relief, Lion-O wasn't upset about their inviting the wolf-man into the Lair. "It's rather strange," he said. "I would've thought this quartet would make life difficult for us, yet the mutant told you all of this without being pressured into it."

"He's lying," Tygra muttered.

"No, he couldn't have been!" Wily Kit replied. "He'd have to be a better actor than Mumm-Ra, and even Mumm-Ra couldn't fake being that sincere without slipping up!" Wily Kat nodded emphatically beside her. Whatever else the others might think, Wily Kit and Wily Kat had been lured into trusting the mutant.

"We know some of what they can all do now, that they can probably get into the Lair without our knowing it, and that they're all dangerous." Lion-O rubbed his hand over his eyes. "It's like they're handing us all their cards and telling us to take a good long look; I want to trust them…."

"The mutant could all to easily have made up that stuff," Tygra snapped. "Probably the only true thing he said was that Serica was behind all this—"

"So now everyone involved with Serica is wrong?" Bengali shouted at him, standing up. Tygra got up as well, with a rather ugly look on his face. "So where does that leave me, Tygra?"

Lion-O groaned. "Not again…." Luckily, he was prepared this time. He just waved his hand in Snarf and Snarfer's general direction, and within seconds two buckets of water soared through the air and landed on the two tigers, dousing each of them from head to foot. At Tygra and Bengali's looks of shock, Lion-O calmly said, "I have two snarfs and twelve more buckets of water, and I'm not afraid to use them. You will not argue about trifling matters."

"But Lion-O, I—" Before Tygra could finish, another bucket of water flew through the air and landed upside-down on his head, thoroughly soaking him.

Lion-O glared over his shoulder where the two snarfs stood by their makeshift catapults. Snarfer pointed at Snarf and said, "He did it!"

Snarf grinned sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. "Uh… my foot slipped…?"

Pumyra pointedly didn't look at Tygra as he took the bucket off his head and sat down. "Don't say you didn't deserve it," she told him. He looked as if he wanted to retort, but held his tongue.


Bengali sat on a rock on the edge of the Mosslands, staring out at the empty space before him. The sun was setting, and he knew he should be getting back to the Lair soon as he had first watch that night, but he just didn't want to be anywhere near Tygra at the moment. By Jaga, what's his problem? he thought, resting his forehead against his hands. Not two months or so ago he was telling me how he wished he could see Serica again, and now he's just flipped out. It's as if he won't even listen to reason anymore. For crying out loud, that fight was almost twenty years ago, can't he just forget it already?

"Wow. So broody. I don't remember you thinking quite this much before."

He blinked and looked over his shoulder. "Serica!" he said happily, jumping to his feet. Then he remembered that it had been fifteen years since they last saw each other, and felt awkward. "I… Serica…."

"I finally get a chance to hug my baby brother for the first time in fifteen years and you want to give me a stutter-filled speech?" she asked him. He didn't wait for a second invitation; he ran the few feet towards her and grabbed her in a big bear hug, which she gladly returned. "That's better! That's the little Ben I know!"

"Serica, I've missed you so much! I was so scared when Thundera was destroyed that you—"

"Well, I wasn't. Sorry, but I didn't expect to be gone for so long." She pulled away from him and held him by the shoulders. "So let me look at you. Are we still as impulsive as ever? And a Thundercat, too! When the heck did that happen?" She raised an eyebrow. "Dare I ask how the other Thundercat of the family is?"

His smile faded a little.

"Ah. He's being a pill again, isn't he." It wasn't a question.

"Serica, I don't know what's wrong with him. I know he wanted to see you again, but… he's just…." He put his hands to his temples. "Jaga help me, I don't want to watch another fight like that!"

Serica shushed him. "There won't be another fight like that, Bengali, not if I can help it. 'Kay? That's a promise." She crossed her arms and sighed. "Truth is, I rather expected something like this. You've heard the saying 'absence makes the heart grow fonder,' right?"

He nodded. "But what's that got to do with this?"

"Everything. That little saying isn't just about lovers. It's about two people who love each other, whether they are parent and child, best friends… or brother and sister. It means that over time, you forget all the bad things about the person you love, and you only remember the good things… and you love them more, because they become perfect in your eyes. That's probably what happened to Tygra… and he got a really nasty wake up call. I'll bet you anything that looking at me again reminded him of all the horrid things about me, and he doesn't like it."

"There's nothing horrid about you."

She smiled. "Nice to know someone thinks that."

"I just want you two to get along…."

"Yeah, me too." She held his face between her hands and forced him to look directly at her. "I'll do what I can, Bengali, but on that matter I can't promise anything. I'll bet you Tygra's terrified of coming face to face with me again… and truth be told, so am I."


Serica walked slowly back to the ship, smiling slightly. The one following her was good, but he still messed up just often enough for her to hear him. Poor amateur, she thought. I'm going to have to give him lessons. So, when she turned a corner, she pressed right up against the wall and waited. As Lion-O tried to sneak past, she stuck her hand out and stopped him. "Nice try, Lion-O, but did you really think you could follow a spy without getting caught?"

He looked a little sheepish. "Well… not really, but I figured I might as well try."

"Uh huh. And what if my job were to kill you? You do realize you would've made my life a whole lot easier, yes?"

He looked started.

"Hmm… you've still a lot to learn, I see. So, what did you want?"

"Where were you all those years? Maybe the other forgot about it, but I haven't."

She smiled a little. "You got all night? Come to the ship and have a cup of tea with me."

"What if you try to poison me?"

"Wouldn't your sword tell you?"

He looked at her suspiciously. "I suppose…."

"Then let's go."


Panthro was fixing the Thunder Tank, the cover open and he half inside the machine double-checking the engine and samoflange. He pulled his upper torso out of the machine and held up a piece of wire to the light. "Damn wire was faulty," he muttered. "No wonder the engine didn't behave. I'm going to have to replace the damn thing."

Something clanged nearby. He got completely out and looked around the hanger, wondering what had made the noise. Not seeing anyone, he shrugged, reached into the tool kit at his feet, and started rummaging around in it. Only after he'd found the roll of new wire and the shackler did he realize that there was another shadow over the floor and the toolbox beside his own. He blinked in surprise and looked to his side.

Squatting beside him, silent as the grave, and fascinated by all the tools and instruments, was the half-breed boy Ater. As if realizing he's been noticed, he looked right back at Panthro.

They stayed exactly where they were for a few minutes, just looking at each other. Finally, as if some unspoken signal had passed between them, Panthro stood up to measure the amount of wire he needed while Ater yawned.

Panthro repaired the engine wire, then completed his inspection of the remaining wires, quite aware that Ater was right behind him, watching everything in interest, and always silent. When he was finished, he wiped his hands on a rag, looking at the boy out of the corner of his eye. Not surprisingly, Ater was looking right back.

"So," Panthro said after a moment of utter silence, "do you actually say anything, or are you mute?"

Ater's ears twitched as he frowned. "What's 'mute'?" he asked in a piping voice.

"I take it that means you can speak. 'Mute' means 'can't speak'."

"What's that?" He pointed to the Thunder Tank.

"That's the Thunder Tank, a fighting vehicle."

"Did you make it?"

"Yes."

Ater's eyes grew wide. "Could you show me?"

Panthro laughed. "It'll take years of patient studying to have the knowledge on how to build a Thunder Tank, and even then it would take a while to really build one."

"You teach me, then?"

"Well…." Before he could answer, the communicator he'd left on his worktable beeped loudly. "Hold that thought for a moment, kid," he told Ater as he walked over to the table and picked up the communicator. "What is it?" he asked.

It was Snarfer's voice that answered him. "Hey, uh, Panthro, you wouldn't happen to know how to fix an oven, would you, snarfer, snarfer?"

"I could probably figure it out. Why?"

"Well, uh, the one we've got has kind of blown up in Uncle Oz—I mean, Uncle Snarf's face, snarfer, and he says he needs it fixed right now. I tried but, uh… well, I only just managed to get away before it blew up in my face."

"An exploding oven?"

"Don't look at me, I didn't build the thing, snarfer, snarfer."

"Alright, I'll see what I can do." He put down the communicator and headed straight for the kitchen. It wasn't until he'd stepped into the kitchen area that he remembered Ater.

Not that it mattered. Snarf turned around and screeched, "What in the world?"

Panthro thought for a moment that Snarf had meant him, and then realized that he was looking instead at little Ater, who had apparently followed the panther fearlessly right into the Lair.

Snarf might've been horrified to realize that there was a Luna-tak half-breed in his kitchen, but Snarfer seemed to think it was funny. "I think you've got yourself a new friend, Panthro," he chuckled.

Ater was looking at the two snarfs intensely, as if he'd never seen such creatures before. "You've got big ears," he told Snarf.

Snarf seemed to decide being annoyed was an appropriate response to the youngster. "Oh, yeah? Have you looked in a mirror lately, snarf, snarf?"

Ater giggled and grabbed his own ears with a grin.

"I don't think he'll be any trouble, Snarf," Panthro said, walking over to the smoking oven to take a look at it. "He'll probably ask some questions, but I think that's it."

"What's that?" Ater asked, pointing at an uncooked pie that sat on the counter, obviously waiting to go into the not-properly-working oven.

"That's a pie," Snarf replied. "Surely you've seen a pie before?"

Ater shook his head. "Nope."

"Oh, really, snarf, so what do you eat on that ship?"

"Biscuit ration thingies we bought before we came to this planet. They're so hard that Mama can bang her foot on top of one while wearing her metal boots, and it still won't break."

Snarf looked horrified, so Snarfer asked, "Snarfer, snarfer, if they're that hard, how do you eat them?"

"Aequo lets his soak in coffee for about twenty-four hours, Venenum stores hers in bleach, and Mama boils hers and mine in milk so that they're squishy and gross."

Panthro blinked. "Bleach?"

"That's what she says," Ater replied with the innocence of a child that has not yet learned what "sarcasm" is. Assuming the poisoner had been sarcastic and not dead serious.

Snarf seemed to get his wits back about him. "Snarf! Why don't you just go into the city and buy real food?"

"Are we allowed to leave the grounds?"

Snarf looked at Snarfer, who shrugged, then at Panthro, who seemed to be equally clueless. "AACK! Panthro, fix that oven! I can't leave those morons to starve to death by eating soaked biscuits! For crying out loud, they've got a growing boy with them!"


"And you don't have the vaguest idea whether or not they're trustworthy or not?" Lynx-O asked over the tele-screen. The screen was split in two, with Lynx-O on one side transmitting from the Tower of Omens, and Cheetara on the other side transmitting from the Cats' Lair on Third Earth. "Hmm…."

It had been over two weeks since the spies had arrived, and this time, instead of holding a meeting in the council chamber, the Thundercats were in the control room. This way, they were able to include Cheetara and Lynx-O in on the situation.

"Aequo is not bad," Wily Kit and Wily Kat said firmly in unison.

"That's a first," Cheetara told them. "I was beginning to wonder if all mutants were evil."

"And what if they are?" Tygra growled.

Lynx-O frowned at the tiger's tone of voice, and Cheetara looked at him in surprise. "There are always exceptions to the rules, Tygra. Remember Grune? He used to be a Thundercat, and he was most certainly treacherous. By that token, isn't it possible for a mutant to be trustworthy?"

Tygra didn't reply to that, but he didn't look pleased. Lion-O had carefully made sure that he was on one side of the room and that Bengali was on the other. He couldn't exactly throw water buckets around in the control room, but he had Pumyra near Tygra and the Thunderkittens near Bengali, and all three of them were well supplied with sleeping pellets. Just in case.

"As for the half-breed," Cheetara continued, "we're no better than the mutants or Luna-taks if we judge against him just because his father was a Luna-tak. If nothing else, then remember that he is also half-Thunderian, and probably like any other child his age."

"What about Serica and Venenum?" Lion-O asked them. "We've got two radically different opinions on the first, and no one in the whole city has even heard of the latter."

It was Lynx-O that responded to the query. "I don't know about Serica, but the description you gave me of Venenum sounds familiar. 'Venenum', as you said Serica mentioned, is probably not her true name. If I could see her, I could probably tell you who she really is, except, well." He tapped his temple. "I could guess if I heard her voice, but I cannot guarantee accuracy, I'm afraid."

"There's also the possibility that she's the kind of person everyone believes to be dead," Cheetara added. "So they'd think they'd never heard of her, because she'd been 'dead' for over fifteen years, possibly longer. That way, she can move about without anyone recognizing her; she'd merely be a random stranger that looked like someone they once knew."

"Not that they'd recognize her easily if she's keeping her face half-covered." Lynx-O's ears twitched. "The thought had occurred to me, too, but I must admit that I'd dismissed it. If the records of everyone on Thundera had survived, I'd suggest looking at those—"

"Except that no one thought to grab them before Thundera was destroyed," Panthro muttered. "Which hardly makes this any easier."

Cheetara shrugged. "For Serica, all I can suggest is that you come to your own conclusions about her. It doesn't seem to me that she's got any bad intentions, but if she's running the show, she could all too easily be the best actress."

Bengali bristled at that, but didn't say anything.

Pumyra sighed. "So that brings us back to base one: watch them while they watch us."

"I'm afraid so, Pumyra," Lynx-O said. "However, it would be well to remind you all that if these four truly do intend harm towards us, the Sword of Omens would let us know before they can implement their plans."


An hour before he had to take his own turn at night-watch, Tygra found himself walking through the silent halls of Cats' Lair, heading towards the large head. He and Pumyra had argued again, this time badly enough to send Tyri into a crying fit. Rather than face Pumyra while still angry and likely to say things he'd regret later, he'd instead told her he needed to cool off and had left the room.

You're a coward, Tygra, he thought angrily. You can't even face your own sister, and you're making everyone around you miserable at the same time. He stepped out into the Cat Head's mouth, walked forward, and sat on the lip. By himself. It felt like he'd been by himself for years, even though he knew the other Thundercats were his friends.

He sat there for a long while, staring out into the night. At some point, he heard someone join him. He tensed up, ready for whatever argument this person would dare bring him, but when no retorts or questions came, he relaxed. After a while it occurred to him he should at least see who in the world was sharing the ledge with him, turned to look, and nearly jumped right out of his skin.

It was the wolf-man.

"How did you get up here?" Tygra queried, tensing up again.

The mutant didn't reply right away. First, he took his time to put a cigarette in his mouth and light it, and only after putting away the lighter did he even look back at Tygra. "You should relax some," he said calmly, blowing a puff of smoke out into the darkness. "Stress is bad for your back muscles."

"You didn't answer my question!"

"Relax, calm down, and ask politely. Then I will answer. Cigarette?"

"No."

Tygra had meant he wouldn't ask politely, but the mutant acted as if he was talking about the cigarette. "It's probably for the best, anyway. Smoking is bad for the lungs."

"So why are you smoking?"

"My father didn't want me to." The mutant sighed and looked melancholy. "Poor man."

They sat in silence for a long while, the mutant smoking his cigarette, and Tygra occasionally glancing over at him. Despite himself, Tygra relaxed. "What did you come here for?"

"I thought it would be nice to talk to a total stranger for a change."

"You came to talk about Serica."

"Not quite."

"I'm not talking to her."

"That's your choice, of course, and I cannot change your mind for you." He paused for a moment. "It's sad, really, when family members don't get along. All too often, your family is all you have."

"I have my friends."

"Yes. But what does Serica have? Only two brothers, and a son that wasn't even born of her own body; no friends."

"What about you and the poisoner?"

"Venenum is hardly easy to get along with, and I prefer men."

Tygra glanced at the mutant curiously. He couldn't tell if the wolf-man was being honest or not. Still, it made him feel a little guilty to think of Serica all alone, but he closed his eyes and said, "I won't talk to her."

"Yes, I believe you said that already. It's a little frightening how much alike you two are. She's being as equally stubborn about this as you are."

Tygra felt a smile twitch his lips. "Is she, now?" Somehow knowing that made him feel a little better.

"I never had siblings myself," the mutant continued. "My mother died when I was young, so it was just my father and me."

Tygra found himself listening curiously.

"We argued a lot, him and I. A lot of the time it came to blows, too. I think I've still got a few of the scars he left on me. But… he still loved me, and only wanted the best for me. And I could kill myself sometimes for not realizing it sooner. Almost managed once, too, until your Claudis came over and messed everything up."

"So why don't you tell your father now? It can't be that difficult to get to Plun-Darr."

"He died over forty years ago." The mutant blew out one last ring of smoke and crushed the stub of the cigarette against the white stone. "I hadn't seen him for ten years before that. I was eighteen, and I'd wanted something very badly for my birthday. I don't even remember what it was now, only that it was something I couldn't afford. My father knew this, and I'd expected he'd give me that whatever-it-was for my birthday… but he gave me a book instead. I was so angry I threw the book down and left, never looking back. I never spoke to him again, and I almost didn't even go to his funeral."

He reached into a pouch attached to his belt and pulled out a small, hardcover book. Not being good at Plun-Darrian languages, Tygra didn't have a clue what it was about, but it looked boring.

The mutant stared at the book and ran his fingers over the cover gently. "This is the book he gave me that night. It's funny, really, how the people that raise you work. All too often it seems that what they're trying to do is make you miserable. All too often… their real intentions are that they just want you to be happy… and you're too immature to see it or too proud to admit it." He opened the book and pulled out and envelope, and in the envelope was what even Tygra could see was a fair quantity of money. "In this envelope is the exact amount of money I needed to get the item I wanted. I didn't touch this book until just before the funeral, when I found it sitting on the mantelpiece of the fireplace. When I found the money… I realized that it wasn't my father that had been the heel. It was me… and I would never be able to tell him how sorry I was." He put the envelope back into the book and held it close, as if by holding it, he could hold his father once more.

"A father is different from an older sister," Tygra said quietly.

"Even when that older sister has found herself thrown unwillingly into the mold of being a mother?"

He didn't have an answer for that.

The mutant sighed and stood up, putting the book back into its pouch. "I had hoped to speak to more receptive ears than Serica's, but it seems that's not happening. So, I shall leave you to your thoughts, Thundercat Tygra." And with that, he left.

And Tygra was once again alone.


His shift almost half over, Tygra found himself wondering what it was he would be telling Pumyra when he got back to their room. She would most certainly be awake; she had this rather odd habit of staying awake after an argument until he'd returned, by which time they'd both be calm enough to just talk things through.

There was an odd noise from the tele-screen. He blinked and looked up just in time to see it wink out, then turn back on. Instead of the scanning system, however, Serica was on there. "Hey, I—" She blinked upon seeing Tygra, and made a face. "Oh, great."

He made a face right back at her, and turned the seat around so that he couldn't see her. Since the tele-screen made her seem larger than in real life, it had brought home the fact that she was no longer young. Her blue markings, which had once been darker than Bengali's, had faded, and there were small wrinkles around her mouth and eyes, unnoticeable unless one looked closely. She's old, he thought, something inside of him turning cold from dread. I didn't realize… she must be in her late sixties by now. The wolf-man's story about his father dying took on a new twist that Tygra didn't like.

"Knock that off, Tygra!" Serica said behind him in that bossy tone he'd grown to hate so much. "This is important!"

He growled a bit before turning the chair back towards her. "What is it?" he snapped.

She didn't look pleased at his tone of voice, but didn't comment on it. "There are mutants heading this way. Aequo and I managed to pick up on some of their transmissions. Commander Rataro is leading the group, and they plan to attack Cats' Lair and destroy the Thundercats."

"Destroy? Completely?" A small part of him believed her instantly, but he squashed it. She's lying; she just wants to panic us.

"That's not their exact wording, but somehow I get the impression none of you would like long descriptions of how they plan to kill you."

She's lying; she just wants to panic us, he kept telling himself. That small part of him started feeling guilty, but he ignored it. "Alright, I'll tell the others." In maybe another two days or so.

Serica's eyes narrowed, as if she wasn't certain she should believe him or not; he felt a little pleased that for once he'd turned the tables on her. "Good. Aequo and I think that they're probably going to try attacking tomorrow morning, while the general public is still asleep. Make sure you tell the others."

"I will." Just not tomorrow. Maybe later.

She gave him a piercing look. "Thank you, Tygra. I trust you." She nodded, and the screen once again blinked off, then back on, returning to the scanning program that had been interrupted.

Tygra felt sick.


He didn't say anything to the other Thundercats the next day. Some peevish part of him had decided that Serica was either over-reacting or lying. Probably the first; the Thundercats had dealt with mutants before, and they were almost ridiculously easy to beat. He was certain that the only way the Thundercats would ever be defeated by mutants would be if it were a mutant army. He went to bed the next night with mixed feelings. He kept hearing Serica saying she trusted him.

By the time he made up his mind to say something, it was too late. Rataro had brought a mutant army, and the very first thing the mutants did was lay siege on the Cats' Lair early in the morning, an hour before dawn, while everyone was asleep.

The Thunderkittens were on duty at the time, and they must've only just barely had time to hit the alarm before the mutants broke in, because as soon as Tygra and the others left their bedrooms, they were surrounded. The struggle was brief and quite violent; in less than ten minutes, the Thundercats had lost their weapons, been shackled with Thundrainium chains and gagged.

As soon as that was finished, they were taken to the front hall. Panthro was limping; Bengali had been knocked out cold and was dragged along; Snarf and Snarfer were being carried like sacks of grain; Lion-O was being watched especially carefully so that he could not summon the Sword of Omens; and to keep Pumyra behaving, one of the jackalmen was holding little Tyri hostage.

Rataro stood in the center of the hall, his eyes narrowing as he saw the Thundercats being dragged in. "That was unusually fast," he commented. "Apparently, numbers do help." Wily Kit and Wily Kat were already there, and Tygra was horrified to see that even they had been brutally treated; Wily Kit was bleeding from a head wound, and Wily Kat's arm was broken. Even if they hadn't been chained with Thundrainium, they were in no condition to get away.

Rataro walked slowly down the line of Thundercats, pausing for a bit longer in front of Lion-O. For some reason, neither one of them looked at each other with hatred; rather, they seemed to size each another up as one would a rival. Something must have pleased Rataro, because his grin widened a bit before he continued on. He stopped in front of Bengali and glared at the monkians holding him. "What happened here?"

"Um… it was an accident?" one of them mumbled, shrinking a bit beneath the rat mutant's gaze.

Tyri's wiggling and hushed sobs caught the commander's attention, and Tygra was inexplicably glad that he wasn't the one being glared at. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THAT CHILD?" he shouted at the jackalman holding her.

The jackalman's ears folded back. "Using her… as a hostage?" he squeaked. The knife he was holding to the baby's throat mysteriously disappeared.

Rataro stalked over to the jackal, took the baby away from him, and nodded to a large reptilian nearby. The jackalman had his rear end swatted by the reptilian's weapon so hard he actually flew forward a few feet before crashing to the floor.

"Morons," Rataro muttered, walking over to the Thunderkittens. He handed Tyri to Wily Kit before swerving around to glare at the mutants. "You remember my orders! The adults will be executed at midnight tonight starting with their leader, and the children will come back to Plun-Darr with me tomorrow morning. I want the city secure before then. Understand?"

If nothing else, Rataro had to be given two thumbs up for having his troops firmly under control. All the mutants saluted him briefly before running off to do separate chores; one ran off with all the Thundercats' weapons, another led the Thunderkittens and Tyri out the front door, and the rest prepared to take the rest of the Thundercats to a more secure area.

"Hold it," Rataro commanded. "Separate the leader; give him a room of his own with thirty guards, and do NOT remove that gag from his mouth, even if he looks like he's suffocating. I'm taking no chances with him. Chain the others to the wall so that they can barely touch the floor; it'll make it harder for them to escape, assuming they can do it at all with those Thundrainium chains."


Egbert and Ozwalt watched apprehensively as the mutants gradually took the whole city in hand. The two snarfs were hidden in a side alley, ducking behind garbage cans whenever any mutants got too close. Egbert shuddered before turning to his friend. "What do you think?" he whispered as another patrol of mutants walked by.

"Give the Thundercats time," Ozwalt replied faithfully. "I'm sure that they'll get rid of the mutants before tomorrow. They're probably already loose."

"I wish I had your optimism," the first snarf said.

Neither one of them noticed a pair of black and white hands slowly reach out of the alley towards their scruffs. At least, not until they heard the sound of popping knuckles and claws scraping together as the hands flexed briefly before snatching them. By the time either one thought to shout out, they were carried at a run into a nearby building, inside a closet, where they were deposited unceremoniously on the floor.

"What the—" Ozwalt blinked in surprise at the two Thunderian women that currently shared the closet with them, one a white tigress, the other possibly a golden cat. "You two aren't Thundercats, are you?"

"No, but we're allies to them," the tigress replied. "I heard the snarfs helped build the Lair, is it true?"

"Uh, yes. Why?"

She ignored him. "Alright, first, one of you needs to go out and reassure the rest of the Thunderians that the Thundercats will have this whole mess fixed before midnight tonight, and to have faith that everything will be back to normal."

Egbert must've unintentionally looked skeptical, because the tigress glanced once at him before turning to Ozwalt. "That'll be you. Get going."

"Yes, ma'am!" Ozwalt replied eagerly. "I knew I was right! I'll go right now!" The golden cat Thunderian opened the door for him to run out of and quickly closed it again behind him.

"How much do you know about the Cats' Lair?" the tigress asked Egbert. "This is important, so talk quickly."

"Off the top of my head, not much. It was a while ago that we snarfs built it; however, I'm quite certain I remember where the plans are stored."

"We need a floor plan of the whole Lair, then—"

"And a map of sa bentiration system," the golden cat added.

"The ventilation system?" The tigress looked at her strangely. "You can't fit in the—" Her eyes widened in shock. "Absolutely not!"

"We need aru sa help we can get," the golden cat replied firmly. "We hab no choice."

Egbert had no idea what they were talking about, but whatever it was upset the tigress quite a bit. Finally, she let out a growl of frustration and turned back to the snarf. "Fine. We need a floor plan of the whole Lair, and a map of the ventilation system."


"Now," Panthro said calmly, testing the strength of the chains that held him, "the truly annoying thing about this whole fiasco is that if we had been awake, we would've been able to handle it." He, Tygra, Bengali (still unconscious), and Pumyra had been dragged into the weapons room and the chains holding their hands had been nailed to the wall. They could barely touch the floor; Panthro's arms were beginning to ache, and the Thundrainium wasn't helping.

Bengali groaned; it was the first sign of coming around he'd given all day. "You alright?" Panthro asked him.

"I feel like my skull's been split in two, and now my arms are killing me," was the reply.

Snarf and Snarfer were somewhat lucky. They were chained up like dogs, but still unable to get loose. "Poor Lion-O," Snarf sniffed. "We can't even help him, and he's going to be the first one killed…." Snarfer patted him on the shoulder sympathetically.

Pumyra's expression was blank. "They're going to make the kittens and my baby slaves," she whimpered. She was drooping like a wilted flower, until her expression hardened. "Those goddamned spies were spies alright! They were working for the mutants all along! Damn it!" She would've stamped her foot if she could.

"They're not with the mutants," Tygra replied real quietly. The others slowly looked over at him. "They're on our side."

"Oh, yeah?" Snarfer snapped. "So why didn't they warn us? They're spies, I'll bet you anything they've probably got the whole galaxy bugged!"

Tygra looked like he wanted to either disappear into nothingness or puke. "Serica told me, during my shift two nights ago."

They could've heard a fly land on the wall, it was so quiet. Not for long, though.

"Let me guess," Bengali growled angrily. "You decided not to believe her." His voice immediately rose in volume. "Damn you, Tygra! She never once lied to either of us, you know that, and you still didn't believe her?! And now we're all going to be killed and the kittens are going to be sold off at slaves because of you!"

"I'm sorry," Tygra whispered, staring at the floor instead of at any of them.

"Not as sorry as you're going to be, snarfer, snarfer," Snarfer told him, his ears twitching as he looked at the door. "Those aren't kitchen knives I hear them sharpening."

"I'm suddenly glad my hearing isn't as good as it used to be," Snarf shuddered.

Bengali's gasping was raspy, and it seemed as if he was having difficulty breathing at all. Panthro looked at him with concern. "Are you okay, Bengali?"

"Don't talk to me," was the harsh response.

"I think that answers your question, snarf." Snarf plopped himself helplessly on the floor. "It's almost dark out. If I wasn't so scared for Lion-O's safety, I'd be starving."

"Tygra," Pumyra said gently. "Don't beat yourself up over this; everyone makes mistakes."

"Oh, yes, and look where this one landed us!" Tygra exploded. "Our daughter's going to grow up as someone's pet, you're all going to get killed, and it's just because I—"

Panthro interrupted him. "Tygra, calm yourself. We've gotten out of similar situations before, in a variety of ways. And once we're out of this situation, I'm going to lock you in a room with your sister and neither one of you are allowed out until you've resolved whatever it is that's bothering you."

"Say, if the spies are on our side," Snarfer asked, "what in the world are they doing right now? I just heard a couple of the mutants out there saying that the ship out front is completely empty, as if were abandoned hastily. No sign of anyone."

"They wouldn't have abandoned us, would they?" Pumyra asked.


"Would you shut that child up?" the reptilian snapped at Wily Kit. "If you don't, I'll break her neck!"

Wily Kat snarled at the reptilian through the bars of the Thundrainium cage while Wily Kit tried to shush Tyri. "And what would Rataro say if you harmed his precious cargo, huh?" he asked in reply. "We might not allow slavery here, but that doesn't mean we don't know slaves are expensive! And an ex-Thundercat slave would easily be a small fortune! He most certainly wouldn't like it if you killed one of us!"

The reptilian snarled at him, but didn't seem to have a reply to that. "Just shut the brat up!" he said instead, turning his back towards them.

"I think she's hungry," Wily Kit whispered, "but we don't have anything to feed her. I'm really scared, Wily Kat. We're probably going to be separated once we get to Plun-Darr, and then we'll never see each other again!" She started to cry.

"Don't cry, Kit! Everything will be alright!" He glanced over at the mutants to make sure they weren't looking, and leaned in close so he could whisper, "Remember Aequo? And the others? They wouldn't let anything happen to us or the other Thundercats, right?"

"I guess…."

Almost as if by mentioning his name they had summoned him, Aequo walked through the gates towards the Cats' Lair, quite as if he owned the place. Behind him walked Venenum and Serica; the former was barely able to walk, she was tied up so much, but Serica only had a leash and collar on. Aequo held the end of the leash and Venenum's rope in one hand, and in the other he carried Serica's huge portfolio over his shoulder.

"You, there," one of the reptilians snapped. "What are you doing?"

Aequo stopped and somehow managed to jerk only the rope, causing Venenum to trip and fall on the ground. "I want permission to kill this one," the wolf-man said with a shrug. "Ugly little bitch tried to kill me, if you can believe it. And as for the other... well, she's quite friendly, and I thought that Commander Rataro would like to try selling her off."

"Friendly, eh?" the reptilian asked lewdly. He and the other three guards, two monkians and a jackalman, stepped forward to get a better look (or cop a feel) at Serica.

And she just wiggled her butt, winked, and all around acted quite shamelessly. "Ooh," she purred to the reptilian. "You look so... big."

Wily Kit and Wily Kat looked at each other in horror. "I think I'm going to be sick," the latter whispered while making a face.

The four mutants were quite enthralled with the friendly Serica, tickling her under her chin, sniffing her hair, and one of them even being so bold as to grab a breast and squeeze it. She only giggled girlishly and slapped their hands ever so lightly. "She's really friendly," the jackalman said appreciatively, looking her up and down with a grin. "Maybe we should... uh, 'train' her a bit, so that Rataro can fetch a real high price for her on Plun-Darr."

As a matter of fact, the mutants were paying so much attention to Serica, they completely forgot about Venenum. The poisoner somehow managed to slip out of the ropes that held her, and whipped out a vial, popping the cork. The group was immediately engulfed in a puff of hot pink smoke. When it cleared, only Aequo, Serica, and Venenum were still standing, the former only barely managing to do so. The rest of the mutants had fallen to the ground, and were sleeping peacefully.

Quick as a wink, Venenum pulled out another vial and handed it to Aequo. "Drink zat before it gets you, too," she told him.

He took a swallow of the liquid, something that was dark yellow, and gagged. "Oh, yuck!" he coughed, handing her back the empty vial. "That's disgusting! Can't you make some of those antidotes taste better?"

"Quit complaining and break open the cage," Serica told him, stepping delicately over the mutants. She removed the collar from her neck. "That's Thundrainium; Venenum and I can't go anywhere near it."

Giving Venenum a dirty look as he stood up, Aequo strode quickly to the cage, grabbed two of the bars, and wrenched them right out of the sockets. "Out, cubs, before it affects you too much!"

Wily Kit and Wily Kat scrambled out as fast as they could. Venenum grabbed Wily Kat, and before he knew it, took his broken arm and reset the bone. He screeched in pain; she ignored him and tightly bound it with bandages that she had pulled out of Serica's portfolio. "Do not do anysing to jar zat arm, you wiru break it again," she told him when she'd finished. Serica and Aequo disappeared inside the Lair. "Your Pumyra wiru hab to put a proper cast on it rater."

"It hurts so much right now I won't dare," he whimpered, trying not to cry.

"What was that stuff?" Wily Kit asked Venenum while Tyri sniffed unhappily. "It didn't affect you and Serica at all!"

"It is my own personaru mix," she said. Though it was hard to tell with the scarf over her face, she seemed to be smiling. "I figured if Sundranium affected just Sunderians, sen I courud make somesing zat affected just mutants. It puts zem into a deep sreep; zey wiru not wake up for hours." She looked at the cut on Wily Kit's head and tsked. "Pasetic." She pulled out more bandages and quickly covered the wound. Tyri, still crying, didn't seem to care about anything that was happening. "Now zat you two hab been taken care of, run into our spaceship and hide. Ater shourud be joining you soon; he wiru show you where sa smuggring stores are. And somesing for sa baby, so she wiru not cry anymore."

"Um… okay, I think I understood that…."

"But what about the other Thundercats?" Wily Kat asked.

Venenum winked at him. "Reabe zat to us spies."


"This is unbelievably boring," Panthro sighed. "Is it midnight yet?"

"Tell me you're joking!" Snarf replied. "By the time midnight comes, we'll be dragged to whatever block they've prepared and we'll have our heads separated from our shoulders!"

"Exactly. Something to look forward to. That's just how bored I am."

"This is all my fault," Tygra muttered.

"Not again," Bengali snarled. "Will you shut up about that already, Tygra? I'm getting sick of it. It's done and over with, now quit moping."

"Hush," Snarfer told them, looking intent.

They didn't hear him. "Oh. Stop moping, should I? Just like you should stop complaining every time you get night watch?"

"Well at least I know better than to distrust my own sister because of a stupid argument over twenty years ago!"

"That's because I'm not idiotic enough to run headlong into an unknown situation and—"

"I SAID SHUT UP!" Snarfer shouted. He glared at them as they stared at him in surprise. "We can argue later! I'm trying to hear something." He turned back to the wall and stared again, his ears twitching occasionally. "Small," he said. "And something that clangs...?"

"What is it, nephew?" Snarf asked him.

"I don't know yet. I'd say it was another snarf, but it doesn't sound right, and there's no tail. Snarfer, snarfer, Lynx-O would know what it is... What the—?" He pointed to the air vent near the ceiling. "What's that?"

Something shaped like a candy cane was poking through one of the openings. It was gray, and when the end clipped onto the screw holding one corner of the vent to the wall, there was a short buzzing noise, and the screw fell to the floor.

"I don't think it's a snarf," Pumyra whispered.

Even as they watched, the strange instrument removed the other three screws and disappeared back behind the vent. Something or someone grabbed the vent from inside the air duct, maneuvered it a bit, and pulled it in. Then there was silence.

"I think it's going away," Snarfer told them, his ears twitching again.

Pumyra narrowed her eyes. "Hmm…. Whatever it is, it has strange habits."

"Wait, it's coming back. Backwards this time." Snarfer frowned. "And it's pushing something before it."

Without warning, there was an audible kick, and a backpack flew out of the vent. When it landed on the floor, the top opened and, of all things, Panthro's nun-chucks fell out; the Sword of Omen's hilt was clearly visible; considering the bulge still inside the back, the other weapons were probably in there, too. And crawling out of the vent, feet first—

"Ater!" Panthro gasped. "What are you—"

Upon landing on the floor, the half-breed whipped around and put his finger to his lips; Panthro took the hint.

Ater's ears twitched once or twice, and then he ran to the door and locked it. He reached into one of the large pockets on his trouser leg, and pulled out a pair of metal shears. He ran over to Panthro and prepared to cut through the chain near his ankle's shackle.

"No, Ater," Panthro said quickly and quietly. "You have to get them off completely. The Thundrainium metal makes us weak."

Ater looked at him, and nodded. He changed his grip from the chain to the metal ring around Panthro's ankle, wiggled the shears into place, and snapped right through it. He blinked in surprise, frowned in concentration, and gripped either side of where he'd made the cut, as if he were going to try pulling it apart.

Bengali growled. "Ater, you can't! The Thundrainium will make you too weak!"

The collar pulled apart in Ater's small hands. "What a weak metal," the boy said with disgust.

The Thundercats stared at him; it was Snarfer that figured it out. "Hey, that's right! You're only half-Thunderian, snarfer, snarfer! Your Luna-tak blood probably protects you from the effect of Thundrainium!"

"Good thing it was me, then," Ater replied, picking up the shears from where he'd put them. "Venenum wouldn't have been able to help you."


Lion-O was tired. He didn't know if it was the effect of the Thundrainium, or if it was because of the horrid position the mutants had insisted on putting him in. He was on his knees, with his arms tied together from elbow to wrist, and a collar attached to the wall on a short chain that prevented him from moving very much. Everything was of Thundrainium, and the gag was so tight it felt like it was cutting into the corners of his mouth.

I guess this will be the turning point as to whether or not I believe everything Serica told me, he thought to himself, only somewhat aware of the reptilian that was actually in the room with him. His other twenty-nine guards were outside the door in the hall, milling about and just being noisy. If they come, I will believe them. If they do not... well, I'll know they were lying, and I'll find some way of getting out of this mess.

"What're you doing here?" the reptilian asked.

Lion-O was about to reply that he was the captive, but someone else replied instead. "Commander Rataro is still a little nervous," a familiar voice replied. Lion-O turned his head and couldn't quite comprehend that Aequo had just walked right into the room, as if he belonged here, closing the door behind him. "Personally, I don't see why such a cub would be as much trouble as the commander seems to think he is."

The reptilian snorted. "Neither do I." He looked out the window and muttered, "I hate wolf-men…."

While the reptilian's back was turned, Aequo looked straight at Lion-O. Then he tilted his head towards the reptilian, silently ran his finger across his neck as if slitting his throat, and raised an eyebrow.

It took Lion-O a moment to realize what the wolf-man was asking. He shook his head violently.

Aequo looked relieved and, without further ado, smashed his fist down on top of the reptilian's head, knocking him out cold. "That should keep him out for a couple of hours," the wolf-man said, double-checking to make sure he hadn't killed the mutant. "He's going to wake up with one nasty headache, though." He came over and quickly untied the gag around Lion-O's mouth, then started snapping the chains holding the young Lord in place. "I'm glad you didn't want me to kill him; Claudis and Jaga promised me that they'd never make me kill my own countrymen, but I wasn't sure if you would be the same."

Lion-O stood up after the last chain was broken and got away from the Thundrainium. "If my father and Jaga would not ask it of you," he said, looking at Aequo, "then neither shall I."

Aequo looked grateful, and bowed slightly. "Thank you, Lord Lion-O. I may be on your side for numerous reasons… but they're still my people." He made a face at the unconscious reptilian. "Even if they don't feel the same towards me." He unsheathed his sword, an enormous black blade with a nasty jagged look, and handed it to Lion-O, hilt first. "I don't have the Sword of Omens with me, so you'll have to use this for the moment. If Ater managed to get your Sword, like he said he could, then it should be with the other Thundercats. When we get in sight of them, you can call it to you."

Lion-O took the blade hesitantly, afraid he wouldn't be able to hold such a large sword, and was surprised at how light it was. "How sharp is this?" he asked.

"Very. I would strongly suggest using the flat of the blade, otherwise anyone you hit with it will pass by you with missing limbs." Before he opened the door, he looked over his shoulder at the young lord. "A little bird told me that you know what my comrades and I were doing for the past fifteen years, but she said you didn't know whether or not to believe us."

"And she would be right. Until tonight, I wasn't certain whether or not I could believe you. I'm… I'm still not, but when we meet Rataro… then I'll know for sure."

Aequo grinned. "Good. I wasn't certain whether or not you had much room for thought in your head when you were a cub, but I can see you've matured greatly since then."


Pumyra had her ear up against the door. "Ater, how many guards are outside the door? Do you know?"

The boy shook his head. "No. But Mama said to wait here until she and Venenum got rid of them. Then we're all going to head to where Lion-O's being kept so we can give him the Sword of Omens."

"That's right, he's got thirty guards keeping an eye on him," Panthro thought out loud. "How're we going to get him?"

"Aequo's going to let him loose."

"How?" Snarf was, as usual in times of crisis, half-hysterical. "Panthro just said Lion-O's got thirty guards on him!"

Ater looked at Snarf as if he were a moron. "He's a mutant. Duh."

"He is, isn't he?" Bengali muttered. "He'd literally be able to walk right in, claiming he was on orders from this Rataro, and no one would be the wiser."

Ater nodded emphatically.

"So how will we know when your mother and the poisoner get here?" Tygra asked.

He needn't have bothered. Almost as soon as the last word had left his mouth, there were shout of surprise from the mutants outside the door, immediately followed by sounds of a large group of mutants getting swatted from one side of the room to the other. When two or possibly three mutants crashed into the door, actually tearing it away from the wall, the Thundercats jumped away and stared in surprise at the nasty pink smoke that floated into the room from the hall.

"Took you long enough, Venom," Serica's voice said. A moment later she appeared from the smoke, raising an eyebrow at them all. Her portfolio was being held over her shoulder again, though from the blood splatters and scratch marks on it, it was all too possible she'd been using it as a bludgeon. "Well, you all going to keep standing there and staring, or are we going to get Lion-O?"

"What about the kittens?" Pumyra asked.

"Taken care of. We got them loose, patched them up a bit, and sent them to hide in the ship. Ater, give someone else the Sword, and get to the ship yourself. I want you all in the smuggling compartments within five minutes."

"But Mama—"

"NOW, ATER! Get moving!"

Ater sighed, gave the Sword of Omens and Claw Shield to Snarf, and leapt up to catch the rim of the air vent. Another moment, and he'd scrambled inside and disappeared.

Venenum appeared from the smoke as well. "We need to moob now, Sundercats. I hab no more gas to put the mutants to sreep, so we're going to hab to fight sem to get to Rion-O."

Panthro looked at her in surprise. "You do speak English… badly."

She glared at him, and pointed towards the hall. "Baka! Isoide!"


How they managed to get Lion-O and Aequo out of that mess of mutants, Tygra never knew. The fighting was just as vicious as before; at one point, a mutant managed to shove a knife into Tygra's shoulder. He'd yelped and collapsed to the floor. The blade must've hit a nerve or something, because the pain just shot right down through his whole body, making it almost impossible to move.

"You're finished, Thundercat!" the mutant had said happily. "You'd have been better off waiting to be executed!" He'd raised his axe while Tygra struggled to pull out the dagger.

The mutant should have been on the lookout for any potential rescuers. As a result, he didn't see the huge portfolio that smashed into him broad side, sweeping him off his feet and knocking him into a huge group of reptilians nearby. Without pausing for thought, Serica reached out, grabbed the dagger's hilt, and wrenched it out of Tygra's shoulder for him. And she didn't leave his side, using her portfolio like a baseball bat or club on any mutant that got too close, until he was able to stand up and continue fighting.

"Serica, I—"

"Not now, later!"

One moment, it seemed they were fighting mutants left and right, with no hope of managing to save their young lord or even themselves. The next, there was a yelp from Snarf, the Sword of Omens flew through the air, and the mutants started scattering left and right, with Lion-O and a rather vicious-looking Aequo at his side running between them.

"Where to, Lion-O?" Panthro asked, taking a breather, though he looked as if he wanted to chase mutants for the rest of the night.

"Aequo told me Rataro is in the meeting room," the young lord replied. "We're going there."

"And then?" Serica asked with a mischievous grin.

He gave her a funny look. "We'll see when we get there."

They ran through the halls as fast as they could, occasionally having to stop and beat the crap out of a group of mutants that got in their way. As a result, fast as they were, it took them ten minutes to get to the meeting room.

Rataro was sitting in the chair farthest from the door, leaning back in it, and for all the world looking as patient as a saint. "Five minutes to midnight," he said calmly as the Thundercats slammed the door behind them. He grinned at Lion-O. "You enjoy cutting things close, boy."

"Not by preference," Lion-O replied just as calmly. The other Thundercats looked at him oddly.

"If you insist." Rataro stood up with dignity, and came fearlessly towards the young lord. "I shall now call a retreat and return to Plun-Darr."

"What?" Snarf asked. "That's it? No final showdown?"

Rataro snorted. "I did not come here for any 'showdowns'. I have more class than that." He frowned and actually looked at the other Thundercats. "You do know why, right?" When no one answered, he looked back at Lion-O curiously. "They don't know?"

Lion-O's expression was somewhat stern. "I'm the only one that does. The others… had a difficult time accepting the spies for who and what they were."

"Know what?" Pumyra asked slowly.

It was Lion-O who replied. "Why the spies have been on Plun-Darr for the past fifteen years." He gave them all a look that clearly told them not to panic. "It'll be explained to you in a moment."

Rataro laughed. "I'll bet I can figure out why no one knows but you! I wouldn't want to be anywhere near Serica and Tygra if they took it into their heads to fight again!"

"How do you know about that?" Tygra asked indignantly.

"Your sister talks in her sleep." Rataro saluted them. "Now, if you will excuse me, I must retrieve my army and leave New Thundera." With that, he left the room, closing the door behind him. A second later, they heard him shouting orders in a loud voice.

"How does he know Serica talks in her sleep?" Bengali asked no one in particular. He suddenly looked horrified and glanced at her with a questioning look.

"Ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lies," she replied in a mischievous tone.

"You are going to explain everything, Lion-O, right, snarf, snarf?" Snarf asked. The rest of the Thundercats were still trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

Lion-O nodded to Serica, who opened her portfolio and took out a yellowed paper that she handed to the young lord. It looked like a contract. "The spies left Thundera over fifteen years ago with the intention of convincing the King of Plun-Darr and his right hand man, Commander Rataro, to sign a treaty with us to end all this fighting," Lion-O told them. "On orders from both Jaga and my father." He held out the paper and let Panthro take it. "That's not the whole of it; apparently, there's another bit of this whole thing that no one's allowed to know about unless the King of Plun-Darr agrees to it. I would've pressed, but Jaga himself appeared to me and told me it would do none of us any good to know it now, especially since it's not yet been agreed to."

Panthro studied the paper quite carefully. "Signed by Jaga, Claudis, King Veterator, and Commander Rataro." He stared at it in surprise. "I don't know about the King or Rataro, but I can certainly tell that Jaga and Claudis' signatures have not been forged onto this document." He looked at Aequo, then Serica, and finally Venenum. "I don't believe it."

"Beriebe it," Venenum said with annoyance. "Sa King and Rataro are bery stubborn. We spent sa rast fifteen years trying to conbince zem to sign zat fucking treaty."

"And it didn't help that Rataro took it into his head to run off a couple times," Aequo added. "He kept going to some backwater place called Third Earth; the second time his Rat Star was trashed and he had to beg to get transportation back to Plun-Darr." Although he sounded as if he didn't know what Rataro had been up to, the twinkle in his eyes said otherwise. "I do believe he was somewhat impressed with whatever it was he found. He was a lot more willing to sign the treaty after the second trip."

There was a moment of stunned silence before Snarf shouted, "YOU'RE ALL INSANE!"

Venenum looked insulted. "I hab neber in my rife craimed to be 'sane'."

"Well, I can understand why Aequo would want a treaty," Pumyra said, "but what about the rest of you?"

"None of your business!"

"Ater's mother had her reasons, I'm sure," Aequo told Pumyra, "but whatever they were, she kept them to herself and took them to the grave with her."

Serica took a little longer to answer than her comrades. "The Thundercats and mutants fight quite often," she said slowly. "There are always casualties on either side. Asshole though he might be at times, Tygra is still my brother and I don't want him to end up dead." She wasn't looking at any of them; rather, she seemed to be studying something in the far upper corner of the room.

Which, as far as Tygra was concerned, was a good thing. If she looked at him now, he wasn't sure how well he'd be able to take it. Unconsciously, he reached up and placed a hand over the wound in his shoulder. She did that… for me?

All this time… was she just trying in her own way to protect me?

("All too often… their real intentions are that they just want to protect you so you can be happy… and you're too immature to see it or too proud to admit it.")

No. That can't be it. He felt ill, and was glad when the others continued the discussion around him. He wasn't certain he'd be able to say anything at the moment without doing something embarrassing… like bursting into tears.

"How in the world did you hide Thunderians on Plun-Darr?" Panthro asked. "That can't be an easy task."

"The best possible place," Aequo replied. "Right out in the open. It was three Thunderians at first, all of them women; it was Serica's idea that I pretend to be their owner, and the three of them performed whatever tasks they wanted as my pets in order to earn money. I think the most popular was the dancing group; Rataro and the king could actually visit that one without looking suspicious. Then our thief went and got herself pregnant with Ater and died in childbirth; the boy's father helped us for as long as he could, but as I'm sure you've heard, Luna-taks and mutants don't get along too well. I'm sure you can figure out what happened to him."

"Cheetara's going to have a litter of puppies when she hears about this," Pumyra chuckled. "And I'm rather looking forward to seeing Lynx-O's face when he finds out."

"What about that last bit that we're not supposed to know about?" Snarfer asked. "Why aren't we supposed to know about it?"

"First, King Veterator has yet to agree to it," Serica replied. "Second, it was at Rataro's request. When you find out what it is—and I've no doubt you will if what Rataro said is true—then I'm sure you'll be able to guess why."


Thankfully, the mutants hadn't occupied the city long enough to cause any serious damage, so the repairs were quick and easy. Before long, it was as if the mutants had never been there and it had been nothing more than a dream or nightmare.

Ironically, only the prostitutes were upset about the retreat. Apparently, the mutants had been very good customers… in more ways than one.

This, of course, left the Thundercats free to tell Cheetara and Lynx-O about the mission the spies had been sent on. Cheetara, like Snarf, questioned the sanity of the spies, and then insisted on meeting them. Lynx-O had burst out laughing so hard that it took him several minutes to compose himself; even then he kept chuckling every few moments or so.

Which left only one more loose thread, one that Tygra intended to leave alone. Unfortunately, Panthro and Bengali had different ideas on the matter.

"Look, isn't enough that we've come to some sort of compromise?" Tygra pleaded as he tried to get away. Bengali and Panthro just tightened their grips on his arms and continued dragging him down the hall. "I'll stay out of her face, and she'll stay out of mine!"

"I am not going through another fiasco like the last one!" Panthro replied. "I told you I was going to lock you in a room with her until you resolved this, and I meant it!"

"Not to mention I'm sick of you two practically trying to commit homicide every time you look at each other," Bengali added. Perhaps a little too roughly, they kicked open the door of one of the spare rooms and threw Tygra in. "Oh, yeah, and I'll be borrowing this for a while." Bengali waved the bolo whip a bit. "I wouldn't want you trying anything drastic." Before Tygra could jump to his feet, they slammed the door in his face, and a lock clicked into place on the other side.

"Let me out of here!" Tygra shouted. "Please! I don't want to talk to her! I'm—I'm—" I'm utterly terrified.

When it appeared that no one was going to open the door, he sighed unhappily and walked into the center of the room. "Well," he told the empty air, "it seems I have no choice in this matter. She'll probably think I'm a coward."

However, a moment later he found out he wasn't the only reluctant one. It seemed that Panthro and Bengali had gotten Aequo in on their plan, and that the mutant was literally carrying a kicking and screaming Serica down the hall. "You goddamned traitor!" she screeched. "How dare you do this to me? What gives you the right to treat me like this? I won't talk to him! I won't! I won't!"

The door opened again, but before Tygra could dash out, Aequo threw Serica at him. This left Tygra with the difficult decision of letting his sister smash into the floor or grabbing her before she hit the floor; he opted for the latter without thinking, but it caused him to miss his opportunity to escape. The door was once again closed and locked. "And we're not letting either of you out until tomorrow morning!" Panthro shouted from the other side. "So I suggest you fix whatever's wrong! Otherwise we'll just lock you in there again."

Serica wretched herself from Tygra and threw herself at the door. "LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT!" After a moment of banging on the door with her fists, she froze, then slowly looked over her shoulder at Tygra.

He wasn't entirely certain laughing was appropriate, so he didn't. "I can see I'm not the only reluctant one," he said instead.

They just stood there for what seemed like hours, staring at one another. . Tygra was the one who moved first; he turned his back on her and walked to the window, leaning his arms against the sill.

Another minute or two passed in silence before Serica said, "This is ridiculous. What's your problem, Tygra?"

"My problem?" He whipped around to glare at her. "My problem?"

"Yes. Your problem. I can't so much as walk into a room without you throwing something at me or ignoring me. All right then, what've I done? Are you still upset because I hit you once? I'd remind you that you were the one that threw me into the bookcase, but you've probably conveniently forgotten that."

He tried to say something, but he could seem to speak. He shook his head.

"Is it because you felt that I was trying to replace Mother? Is that it? Do you think that's what I tried to do?"

He shook his head again. He was getting angry again, though he couldn't have said whom he was getting angry with: her, or himself.

"Is it because you felt that Bengali was getting all the attention? For crying out loud, Tygra, he was only two days old when Mother died; what did you expect me to do? Ignore him and hope he learned to take care of himself?"

"That's not it," he muttered.

"What, then? What have I done? I cooked and cleaned so that you wouldn't have to! I dropped out of school to get a part-time job so I could help Father support us and take care of Bengali! I stayed home most of the time so that if you needed me, I'd be there for you! I went through hell and high water for you, even though you fought me every step of the way!"

"You didn't!" he finally shouted at her. "You never gave me what I needed! You were never there! Half the time I had to take care of my own cuts and bruises because you were too busy! And the first chance you got, you gave me away without a fight!"

"Without a fight?" she screeched back. "Is that what you think? I tore apart Claudis' office when he and Jaga told me they wanted to take you away! They had to call in the other Thundercats to restrain me! Do you think I liked having it thrown in my face that I had no control over you, by the Lord of the Thundercats no less? And unless I had control over you, I couldn't teach you to control yourself! When your mental powers came into bloom, I wouldn't have been able to do anything to keep you from destroying yourself! Jaga practically handed me two outcomes: either keep you and watch helplessly as your mind tore itself to shreds, or give you up so that Jaga himself could teach you the control you needed to stay sane!"

He stared at her in shock.

She was openly weeping now. "What else could I do? Claudis was at least kind enough to grant me two weeks grace to make my decision, and I tried, I seriously tried, to make you understand what the situation was, but damn it all, you just wouldn't listen! When my two weeks were up, I took Bengali to the Lair with me and informed Jaga that if he wanted you, then he'd have to explain to the baby of the family why his older brother had been taken away! You think I enjoyed watching Bengali cry like that? And when I finally handed you over to Jaga, it was all I could do to keep my head so that I could get home without causing a scene!"

All the fight had drained out of him. "Why didn't you tell me any of that?" he asked quietly.

"I tried, but you wouldn't listen!" She backed up against the wall and sunk to the floor. "I never wanted to be your surrogate mother," she whispered, ignoring the tears that ran down her face. "I never got anything I wanted, the circumstances wouldn't let me…."

("When you are older, and more able to appreciate how much your sister has given up for you, then you will see them again.")

Tygra slowly walked over to Serica and knelt beside her. "I'm sorry, Serica," he said quietly. "I kept telling myself over the years that I knew what you were going through… but I didn't. Maybe in some way, that was some form of arrogance I managed to cultivate. I should've resolved this whole fight when I realized how bad it had gotten."

She shook her head slightly and wiped the tears from her face. "It was partially my fault. I probably should have explained things better to you when I had my chance. And I'm sure it didn't help to keep running away rather than facing you." She looked at him. "I'll forgive you if you forgive me."

He sat beside her. "That works for me. But you've got to promise you'll never hit me again."

"I promise I won't hit you again unless you richly deserve it."

He smiled slightly. "And I promise I won't throw you into any more bookcases. And next time you try to tell me something… I promise I'll listen."

She smiled back. "And I'll listen to you when you've got something to tell me."

Awkwardly, he gave her a hug, and was somewhat relieved when she returned it without hesitation. After a moment, they let go of each other again and just sat there. "I still hate you."

"Yeah, well, the feeling's mutual."

"So now what?" he asked.

"Well, we're stuck in here until morning," she replied. "So I guess we just sit here until then."

"You mind if I ask you a question?"

"Only if I can't answer it."

"I think you can, I just don't know if you will."

She looked at him cautiously. "What?"

He hesitated before looking at her anxiously and asking, "You didn't really sleep with Rataro, did you?"


End of Part One.

And now, for the long awaited RANDOM NOTES!

Herculus baby: A Thundercat story that never appeared in the TV series, it was in the Thundercat comics from the 1980s, #21 to be exact (#55 and #56 in the British comics). It was basically a Snarf solo story where he got stuck with an invincible super-strong baby, only to have the mutants try to kidnap the baby… and well, it was certainly one of those stories that made the mutants look like a bunch of morons….

Serica: Latin word for "silk." I don't know why I chose silk, exactly; I just wanted something different from the over-used "Siberia" and similar names.

Venenum: Latin word for "poison." Definitely one of my stranger ideas. A Thunderian with a Japanese accent and a Latin name! There's a good one!

"Good shing….": Sorry about that. That whole monologue was me playing with a thick written Japanese accent, and it's so bad I simplified her speaking later in the story for literacy purposes. She basically said, "Good thing, too. Otherwise, the interloper in question would be in big trouble…."

"Yorrin desuka? Iindesuyo….": Japanese translation – "Four people? That's good…." The sentence structure (called the ndesu form) indicates surprise.

"Doushite iya na no?": Japanese translation – "Why not?"

Aequo Animo: Literal Latin translation – "with patience." It seemed to fit his character.

Ater: Latin word for "black." Ironically, so is the Latin word "niger;" I almost used that, then decided not to on account of its similarity to another not-quite-so-popular word. Gee, I wonder where it derived from….

Immunity: Yes, immunity to poisons can be built up. You start with a VERY small amount of poison every day, hopefully only just enough to make you sick but not kill you, and keep at it until it no longer bothers you. Then you raise the amount of poison by a little bit, and continue the process. However, this CANNOT be done will all poisons; some, like arsenic, will stay in your system—specifically, your body fat—and the moment you stop eating the poison, all the poison that's still in your body fat will hone in on you and kill you. It's more complicated than that, but that's the basic idea.

Aequo's story: This is a little similar to a story that I heard when I was younger. It affected me so much then, that I still remember it quite clearly almost ten years later.

"Baka! Isoide!": Japanese translation – "Idiot! Get a move on!"

"She talks in her sleep.": Indiana Jones anyone? The really funny thing is that I didn't even realize where this idea came from until I watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade with my family earlier! Talk about something that sticks in the mind!

Tygra and Serica's fights: Derived from fights my own mother and I have had, one or two of them resulting in her trying to strangle me, and me hitting her so hard she got a black eye. No, it's not child abuse. I was eighteen at the time, and HARDLY a child. I can't honestly say I didn't deserve it, either, just like I'm still convinced my mother deserved that black eye. Besides, some of the fights I've gotten into with my sisters recently make that fight look like a joyride.

And now, next time on Spies and Assassins:

Well, actually I'm not completely sure what will happen. Only that Cheetara has quite an interesting experience… arranged by, of all things, the Sword of Omens!