Strategy.
It was something uncommon in the Simian clans of Plun-Darr. Some made passing attempts at it, true, but few ever truly grasped that a fight was more than mere pressing of flesh and whomever had the most won. Those who did had made impressive names for themselves.
Primor was one of them. Indeed, among the most notorious of his line. Brute force had its uses, yes, but fear was ever more effective for defeating enemies. It also made dealing with his underlings easier. They all feared him and envied his power yet none would try to take it. Some had tried, and Primor had not hesitated to make examples of them. If there was one fact that had to remain clear, it was that obedience brought riches.
But leadership brought more.
As captain of this Mutant fleet, that one fact needed strict, and therefore, brutal demonstrations. Speeches, promises, oaths, for a Mutant, none spoke as eloquently as a harsh voice and a good whip.
Primor sast alone in his bedchambers with a glass of sparkling water before him. Like most Simians, he could pound serious kirgash with the best of them yet high octane booze made for poor planning. From what he had seen over the past two days, superior planning was something he would desperately need. After all, one did not gain command of such an armada by being a damned fool.
"Guyver..." He let the word roll on his hideous tongue. Such a *powerful* weapon! Platoons of Nosedivers, dozens of Skycutters, and a battalion of Mutants lost to that fucking freak in just under two days. A weapon such as that, when paired with the Eye of Thundera, made for some damn stiff opposition. How to deal with such a threat to his forces? Divide and conquer - a strategy that had proven itself over a generation of battlefields - might not work in sugh a scenario. Primor took a sip of water as he recalled Guyver's fatal final attack on Castle Plun-Darr. If that assclown could cause that much carnage with just one weapon, just how much damage could it cause the rest of his garrison?
To fucking THINK, he raged silently, that one damned BOY could cause ME to re-evaluate my own forces! Son of a BITCH! That thought, however, was not made in malice. Primor loved a good challenge.
So long as it was one he could win.
So, he thought, how do I win this one?
Against him: The ThunderCats, the Guyver, and the Eye of Thundera.
For him: Over fifteen hundred Mutant warriors, loads of Skycutters and Nosedivers, two Warbots, and four starships.
Depends: Mumm-Ra and whatever the hell he could conjure up.
Primor, even under pain of torture, would never admit it, but he was completely stumped. No matter which way he turned, he stood a damn good chance of ending up screwed.
Oh, and let's not forget the Lunataks...
Yes, let's not. Primor nearly called for a kirgash. He knew which ones had ended up on this hellpit, thanks to the archives, and those particular jackholes were among the worst of their foul breed. They hadn't staked a claim in the battle yet, but they would soon enough. Them, or Guyver first? Which would be the easiest?
None.
Damnit.
Those fucktards will try to get Guyver on their side, by hook or by crook Primor thought. Get to him first? Yes, that was best, but by past experience, he would disassemble anyone - Mutant, Lunatak, or anyone he remotely disliked - before any could get close!
And who knew when that bastard Mumm-Ra would wake up again?
"Borrowed time," Primor muttered as the buzzer at his door sounded.
"COME!" he roared as the door slid open and Laheela entered.
Oh, yes, Primor thought, Laheela.
He watched Laheela as, nude, she walked silently from his door to the "play area" as he had come to calll it. She was Thunderian, a female orange Tyger, and completeley suvbservient. Such went for very high prices on the black market. Obedient Thunderian meat was rather popular among collectors, and a mercenary neeeded every high price he could get.
Even so, Laheela was... special.
Laheela walked to the center of his quarters and raised her arms. The shackles came down from the ceiling and, obediently, she placed her wrists in them. He would, of course, have to shackle her ankles, but such was insignificant. Primor studied her every curve, identifying which scars on her shapely body he had put there. The black hair, an unusual feature in Tygers, hung down to her waist. It had been washed just before, he noticed, and he studied its sheen in detail. Yes, she had properly prepared herself.
Blank eyes, resigned movements, Primor thought as he doffed his loincloth, you're broken. If I didn't enjoy you so much, I would have sold you.
Time for some strenuous thinking...
Ma-Mutt knew this place. Wicked, razor edged instruments of torture hung from the scum-crusted walls, each coated with dried blood and sundry other ichors from the countless things they had dismembered. A tremor of fear raced through the hellhound as he padded along the stone slabs of the floor to the waiting furnace.
The Hellforge sat in the center of this dark and ancient place. On a dias of human skeletal remains it sat, festooned with blasphemous arcane symbols that glowed and pulsed a deep red. Like a heartbeat, the hateful red glare brightened and faded in time to his own.
Ma-Mutt whimpered, yet continued on because THEY commanded. THEY who had made him, THEY who had bid him serve his Master, willed that he return. The black iron door of the Hellforge opened at his approach, hinges grating with the sound of a thousand screams, the flames within holding the heat of a thousand damned souls.
Ma-Mutt had been prepared for the pain, yet an agonized howl still escaped his jowls as the fires tasted of his flesh, and the screams of the door closing behind joined with his own.
Chilla paced her chambers, muttering beneath her breath as she stomped across the frozen floorspace. Everything, from the walls to the furniture, was carved from solid ice. It was the one place in all SkyTomb where the air temperature even approached comfortable. She paused before her mirror, a shard of frozen crystal which reflected her entire form, and studied her own image.
She was the most beautiful of the Lunataks, of that there was no doubt. Her reflection stared back, studying her hourglass figure as intensely as she studied its. Skin a shade of blue that could only be considered healthy by her own kind, full breasts which hung free of any encumbering clothing, hair of pure white...
Damn, she thought, but I look good.
Upon receiving her own seal of approval, Chilla left the mirror and padded gracefully back to her bed. The bone-chilling surface of ice greeted her as she lay back on the frozen slab. All day she had mulled over Luna's plan to abduct and brainwash the Guyver and, each time, she found herself liking it less and less.
That the entire plan hinged on Alluro's Psych Club had Chilla more than a little concerned. His psionic powers depended on that pathetic stick he used for a weapon. Without it or, more precisely, the orb at its tip, his psychic powers were nothing shy of useless.
Chilla allowed that, yes, Alluro had extensive knowledge of various psychic phenomena and manifestations but all that meant doodly-fuck without his club. To be perfectly honest, all it did was give him enough power to implant strong hypnotic suggestions. Against anyone with a strong enough will, such an ability would be rendered moot.
And Guyver was far too powerful to take that chance with.
Even so...
Chilla recalled the images from his battles against the Mutants and Mumm-Ra. Such power! Such apocalyptic DEVASTATION! She was lost in her own mind, not even consciously aware of her fingers tweaking her nipples.
To think that armor belongs to a human, she mused as she gazed to her right. Frozen into the wall, the remains of several human males and females hung in twisted poses of agony and terror. Humans were weaklings, but they did have their uses...
All coherent thought vanished from her mind as her left hand wandered down to her sex. Death, destruction, chaos, mayhem...
Oooooohhhh...
"Looks like Turmagar came through," Panthro said as the first Gomplins appeared over the horizon.
"I'd say so," Lion-O replied, staring into the distant sky. He counted ten of the beasts soaring toward the Tower of Omens each, he knew, carrying troops and weapons. More were incoming, these ten being only the first wave as the Tuska warriors scrambled every resource they could spare toward the ThunderCats' aid.
Despite himself, the Lord of the ThunderCats wondered if it would be enough. Even though no new activity from the Mutant Army had been detected, he knew it was only a matter of time before they began to conquer territory. The fact that the Cat's Eye atop the tower couldn't even see the Mutants was cause enough for worry. So far as Lynx-O could determine, they had bugged out toward the northern polar regions, well beyond the Eye's range.
More troublesome by far was the fact that the very Eye of Thundera couldn't see them, either. Most of the surface of Third Earth had yet to be explored. Who knew what could be out there, shielding the Mutants? And Mumm-Ra? How long before he resurfaced?
It is said that evil never sleeps.
This is not so.
True evil does sleep, from time to time, always to awaken once more.
A thing alive. Hungry.
A snake poised to strike, the hapless mouse locked dead in its unblinking gaze.
A snake known as Mumm-Ra.
The stone lid of the sarcophagus slid open with a hideous grating sound as the unnatural, malevolent life force once again animated dessicated muscle and coursed through veins that should have been nothing more than dust. With each step, joints and ligaments moved with greater and greater ease. His hateful red eyes glared about the gloom of the tomb chamber, lingering on the earthly avatars of his masters.
Pure joy at having denied death its due once again filled his undead frame as the oath burst from his withered lips.
"Wherever evil exists," he began, "Mumm-Ra LIVES!"
The eyes of the statue came to life as though welcoming their eternal servant. Power crackled about the tomb and cast everything in a strangely flickering light before fading away.
"I still live," he said as he slowly approached the scrying pool, "yet I am still weak." How much has happened? The bubbling sludge within the pool calmed at his approach and showed him.
"Heh heh heh HAHAHA!" The sight of Cat's Lair lying in utter ruin pleased him to no end. How many were dead? Hopefully not all. At the very least, he wanted Lion-O all to himself. The image faded and reformed into another set of ruins.
"So much for Castle Plun-Darr," Mumm-Ra quipped as he beheld the wreckage. What had happened? He watched as within the liquid the images of that night were revealed. "Troubling," he muttered as the scene ended with Guyver immolating Nosedivers and the fortress itself. "Very troubling." He remembered the intense agony of that black ball Guyver had used to blast a hole in his chest with a small shudder. That had been bad enough, just imagine what that weird chest beam thing would do to him? The reverie ended with - most disappointingly - the ThunderCats still alive. Mumm-Ra wanted to curse at the sight.
The Mutant army, he decided, had to be dealt with. If they were to be on Third Earth, then they would be under his thumb. Such firepower was too dangerous to have running loose and simply destroying Primor and his forces would be such a waste. They had already proven useful once, and would doubtless do so again. If Primor was properly obedient, Mumm-Ra would even consider tossing him a bone or two. Like having Cheetara at his mercy again? Yes, there would be a certain irony in that.
"Ancient Masters," he addressed the heathen statues, "I need more time..."
"We know," they replied, cutting him off. "The Mutant Army will not move from their place until you are ready."
"Excellent," Mumm-Ra said, rubbing his dry hands together. The sound was as hissing snakes. "Ma-Mutt!"
"He is returned to the Hellforge. We have need for him elsewhere."
"I see." Need? For Ma-Mutt? They would tell him in time.
"Gaze into the waters, Mumm-Ra," they commanded, "and see our task for you."
He returned to the edge of the pool and beheld a stretch of what appeared to be a dry riverbed. Mumm-Ra knew it to be anything but.
"The Living Ooze?" he asked, incredulous. "Masters, I fail to see how that pathetic abomination could be of use to me!"
"We have learned much about that creature. Look again."
Mumm-Ra obeyed. The images were fragmented, yet...
"Oh. I see, Masters!" he said, roaring with laughter. Oh, yes! "I will go at once."
The marshlands surrounding the Ooze were a rotting, poisoned place. Trees and shrubs which should have been lush and green were instead twisted and black. A putrid, horrible odor hung in the moist air which was itself still and stagnant. Everything about this spot on Third Earth carried a sense of hopelessness and despairing death.
Even birds don't fly over this hellhole, Mumm-Ra thought as he exited the rift. As if the feel of death rose into the sky itself. Lovely place.
Mumm-Ra stepped carefully to the quarter-mile stretch of goo which had drained all life from this place, and had claimed more than its share of unwary animals and travellers. It bubbled and writhed like a creature from a child's nightmare, all hateful intent and gleeful evil. Mumm-Ra knew, however, just what it truly was.
"Ooze!" he called once he reached the edge of the riverbed. "I would speak with you!"
"Grrrrghhh... What do you want, Mumm-Ra?" A head of sorts formed from the muck, misshapen eyes staring intently at him and lopsided mouth moving in a hideous attempt at normal speech.
"Watch your tone, Ooze," Mumm-Ra warned. "I have need of you."
"You?" Ooze asked, suspicious. "Needing me? Bahgggghh, I have no need of you."
"DO NOT TRIFLE WITH ME!" Mumm-Ra roared, evil magic arcing like lightning all about him. He remained there for a moment, restraining his anger. This was too important. After regaining his calm, Mumm-Ra groaned in false disappointment. "I had truly thought you were more intelligent than this, Dyme. I can see I was wrong." Mumm-Ra turned on the spot as if to leave.
"W-WAIT!" From the tone of Ooze's panicked cry, Mumm-Ra knew he had it hooked. Time to reel it in...
"Wait? Why should I? You clearly want no part of what I had in mind. Such a waste..."
"TELL ME!" Ooze's voice hovered in the upper reaches of shock bordering on terror. "Tell me how you know that name!"
"I know many things about you, Dyme," Mumm-Ra replied, finally turning about. "Or is it, Lost Number Commando Dyme?" The Ooze's face could not possibly show any semblance of emotion, yet Mumm-Ra detected a glimmer of fear in its eyes. "Such a sad tale. To gain power, you submitted to a process that ultimately failed." A step closer. "It must be so frustrating, Dyme. After being so soundly defeated, after two thousand years spent painstakingly reconstructing yourself molecule by molecule, thought by very thought," Mumm-Ra let his voice carry a snide, yet patronizing tone, "you end up nothing more than an enormous puddle of snot." Mumm-Ra stood, relishing Ooze's silence.
"What do you propose?"
"You will serve me," he began, "and in return for your fealty I shall make you whole once more."
"You... you can DO that? You have a processing tank? Researchers? Kronos still lives?"
Kronos... ah, yes. The boy had used that word.
"Do not bother me with such nonsense," Mumm-Ra said. "I have magics beyond your comprehension."
"What would you have me do?"
"You will aid me in the utter annihilation of the ThunderCats, and an enemy you would know far better than I." Mumm-Ra raised his hand and summoned an image in his palm.
"GUYVER!" Ooze shouted. "He still lives?!"
"He does. He..."
"Save it, Mumm-Ra! I accept!"
"Excellent."
"One one condition."
"And that would be?" Mumm-Ra snarled.
"Do whatever you want to the ThunderCats, but Guyver is MY enemy! If anyone kills him, it will be me!"
"I can live with that. Now, make way." The Ooze parted as Mum-Ra's feet touched the cold, decayed soil. Onward he strode, the goo keeping clear of him, to the center of the riverbed. Once there, he cast a teleportation spell and both disappeared from sight.
Disgusting, Mumm-Ra thought as he gazed about the tomb chamber. Everywhere he saw a sea of cold slime undulating and bubbling. The sludge rose to his knees, and the SMELL! Like decomposing flesh overlaid with mold.
If I still ate, Mumm-Ra mused, I would be throwing up right now.
"Well done," the Ancient Spirits of Evil said. "Begin the spell and take your rest. We shall wake you when it is time."
Mumm-Ra raised his hands and between them an orb of energy formed like a tiny sun. Brighter and brighter it glowed, purple light bathing the tomb until the massive bulk of the Ooze began to rise toward it.
"What the hell is this?!" he heard Ooze cry as his gelatinous form rose and formed a tapered point which led into the sphere. Mumm-Ra ignored its frenzied shrieks of pain as the Ooze was sucked into the spell. Finally, it was done, yet Ooze's foulness still lingered about everything it had touched.
"By the way," Mumm-Ra said as the orb lowered itself into the scrying pool, "I forgot to mention that this is going to hurt like all kinds of hell."
Nothing to do, Sho thought as he soared above the desert which had become home. Home? No, wrong word. Food and a bed, but not a home. Did he even have one?
Sho halted his flight and puzzled over that thought as he beheld the immense vista of noontime desert. The sky stretched out above and beyond him, an infinite sea of pale blue dominated by the fierce golden disc of the sun. Far below him a featureless flat expanse which was the desert floor gave no evidence of life having any hold upon it.
I thought deserts were supposed to have all kinds of bugs and snakes, he thought though he could not recall where he had picked up that fact. If he could recall at least one thing, just one damn thing, about his past...
Sho reached out with his mind. Again there was nothing. The owner of the voice which had bade him come seemed not to be out there anymore. "So fucking tired of this," he cursed. "I want to know who I AM!"
More than that, he wanted to know why he had the Guyver, why so many had died for it. The thought hit Sho like a punch in the gut. Those Berbils, the Warrior Maidens, Willa... All of them had lost their lives over the weird armor he was wearing at that moment. All this power...
I can fly, I can destroy things six ways from Sunday, I even rescue ThunderCats in the process, he mused ruefully, But I can't protect innocent lives. That's a real bitch.
Even his intention to examine the rubble of Cat's Lair seemed pointless in that light. If all this armor was good for was wanton destruction, then it stood to reason that using it for any other purpose would end only in disaster. In trying to help them, was he really endangering them? Why did these thoughts seem so familiar?
Sho shook himself out of his train of thought, but couldn't manage to dislodge the sadness and frustration.
Agito growled in irritation as he again had to hide himself from Sho's telepathic attempts. It's all part of the plan, he kept saying to himself. The mantra, which had served him so well in his plot to infiltrate Kronos all those centuries ago, did nothing to quell his rising impatience. And fear.
Fear, he snorted. How long since I felt that? It didn't matter. It was coming. Should have happened already. Would have if not for his indomitable will.
There was really no such thing as immortality, he had learned just a decade past, when he first felt the Guyver Unit try to leave him. Just a tugging deep in his mind at first, each successive attack had been worse than the one before. And more frequent just this year alone.
Once the host was no longer sufficient to sustain the Guyver - old age, for instance - the unit would try to leave the body. Preventing his own separation had been, as his saying went, all part of the plan. He had to wait for Sho to awaken. It was his only chance. He needed Sho.
I only have one bio-boost left in me, Agito thought. I must save it for when it really counts.
Lion-O entered the main control chamber of the Tower, manned only by Lynx-O at the moment, slightly irritated. All about the perimeter of the Tower Tuskas and ThunderCats were busy digging in fixed cannons and building bunkers. Once the next Tuska shipment arrived, early warning posts would be established to extend the range and sensitivity of the Cat's Eye. Every able-bodied man and woman was helping.
Except Sho.
"I have found him, Lion-O," the lynx said. On the monitor on the wall above an image of desert sky filled the screen with Sho in his armored form hovering in mid-air as though gravity was his servant.
"Why is he using the Guyver?" Lion-O asked, suddenly concerned.
"I am detecting nothing else in the vicinity," Lynx-O offered. "Shall I put you through to him?"
"Yes," he snapped on seeing that Sho was wearing the wrist-comm.
Mumm-Rana glared into the depths of her own scrying pool at the image of the Destroyer hovering above the sands. With each breath, each moment of seeing that bastard standing above her world, her anger grew.
Look at him, she thought, floating there like he owns the skies! I would not be surprised if he were selecting a target!
"He has left the Tower of Omens," the Ancient Spirits of Light said. "If you wish to challenge him, do so now,"
"With pleasure." She raised her arms skyward and felt the energies of goodness and righteousness fill her near to bursting.
"Ancient Spirits of Light! Transform this ancient form... To Mumm-Rana, the Ever Living!"
The pain took her as her body became large and powerful. Bandages shredded away as her pure white tunic appeared around her torso and upper legs. Her hood blew backward as a golden helmet materialized atop her head, a belt and boots following suit.
"Destroyer," she snarled as righteous fury raged within her, "today you DIE!"
"Go ahead, Lion-O," Sho replied, cringing inside.
"Sho, is anything wrong out there?"
"No." Not anything you'd understand, he managed not to add.
"What the hell are you doing out there, then?" Lion-O's voice said it all. He was annoyed as hell, and the others probably were, too.
"I was headed to Cat's Lair to see if I could remove some of the rubble," Sho answered. It was the truth, even. He had only stopped to try and find that voice.
"Sho, listen, I appreciate what you're trying to do, but Tygra's handling the extraction. There's a lot of work to be done here, and we could use every pair of hands we can get."
"Got it. Sorry, Lion-O."
"Don't worry about it," the lion said back, his voice considerably more mellow. "Just get back..."
"Sho!"
"Yeah?" he said, worried about Lynx-O's shout.
"What is it?" Lion-O asked as the image of Sho zoomed out to a map screen. In the upper-right quadrant was a red blip that was moving toward Sho's position.
Fast.
"I do not know," Lynx-O replied, "but it is putting out large energy readings."
"Sho! Get back to the Tower! Now!"
"On it!" Sho said as he angled back to the Tower of Omens. Another fucking fight, and what had he done to provoke it? Well, this was one that he would not fight. He didn't start this...
"Destroyer!" screamed a booming female voice as the woman herself appeared before him.
"Son of a bitch..." Sho muttered.
"Mumm-Rana?!" Lion-O gasped, utterly flabbergasted.
"I am summoning the others," Lynx-O said as streams of data scrolled past the images of Sho and Mumm-Rana. The rest of the ThunderCats, sans Cheetara, arrived in moments, all wearing looks of utter bewilderment.
"What in Jaga's name is she doing?" Panthro asked as the two appeared to speak. Sho's wrist-comm had gone suddenly offline.
"If I didn't know better," WilyKat replied, "I'd say she's spoiling for a fight!"
"If that's the case, she's gonna get a doozy!" Snarfer said.
"So's he, if this goes on!" Lion-O said. "We can't let them fight! Lynx-O, call Sho again!"
"No good," the old one answered, "his communicator appears to have taken damage from her energy field!"
"Damnit. We'll take the Thunderstrike! Pumyra, Tygra, you're with me! Lynx-O, keep monitoring them!" Lion-O wasted no time barrelling out of the room, Pumyra and Tygra close behind.
Neither one of them knows what they're dealing with! Lion-O thought. I can't let them duke it out, especially so close to the Tower!
"So, Destroyer, you've finally left your protective womb."
"Um, WHAT?!" Sho replied.
"Do not play dumb with me," the female super-mummy said smugly. "I know what you are."
"Okay, good. Mind filling me in?" Sho hovered in midair, staring into her stony face. This would end up in a fight, he just knew it.
"I know your memory has failed you, monster," she said, "but mine serves me quite well. I will not let you destroy Third Earth!""That's all well and good, seeing how I don't want to blow this planet up in the first place!"
"Do not lie to me..."
"In case you haven't noticed, I'm not lying to you." The Tower of Omens is only two miles to the south, Sho thought. When this shit hits the fan, I gotta lead her away!
"Just one thing," Sho said, "you'll chase me if I run, right?"
"To the ends of Third Earth."
"Then catch me if you can!" Sho tore off through the sky on an easterly course, thinking back to the maps of Third Earth he had studied. On this approach, he could get her alone and figure out what to do from there.
Lion-O steered the Thunderstrike across the sky as his radar showed Sho and Mumm-Rana rocketing off for parts unknown. From the last radar contact, he knew they were headed toward the east where no area was yet inhabited.
"I know that place," Tyrgra's voice said over the intercom.
"So?"
"Lion-O, they are headed toward where you passed my annointment trial."
"Yeah, I remember," Lion-O replied. "No one lives there, if I recall right."
"I confirm it's uninhabited," Pumyra said, "and Sho is slowing down."
Thank Jaga, Lion-O thought. At least there were no innocent bystanders. Sho had chosen his battlefield well.
"How far out are we?"
"At least ten minutes," he heard Tyga say. "Those two move pretty damn fast."
"Full power to the engines," Lion-O ordered. "We've gotta get there before the sparks really start flying. Pumyra!"
"Yes?"
"Establish a feed with the Tower of Omens. I want them to see this in real time with us." We'll need this data.
"Just give me five minutes."
Lion-O did the math. Good enough.
Mumm-Rana felt her power weaken, and her anger rise, with each burst of mystical energy the Destroyer managed to evade. She realized that he was toying with her, trying to taunt her into a serious attack that would give him time to use his incredible speed to get the jump on her.
You don't realize your mistake, she thought, there are no innocents to hide you in this desert. You WILL be mine!
The Destroyer paused in mid-air for a moment before dropping like a stone to avoid another magical attack. Mumm-Rana paused for a moment as her hated nemesis sank to the ground. What the hell was he up to?
Looking around, Sho could have sworn that nothing alive could call this parched stretch of land home. If he had to make his stand, it had to be here.
It wouldn't be much of a stand, either, he thought as Mumm-Rana landed just ten feet away. From what he had seen of Mumm-Ra, her powers were much like his.
All I have to do, he thought as the she-mummy touched down, is keep her busy. When she runs out of power, I can just leave.
That was, of course, if she ran out of energy before he did.
Too late to worry now, he thought as she landed level to him.
"They're squaring off," Panthro gasped as the two titans began to circle each other. The gathered Thundercats and Tuskas in the control chamber stood at rigid attention. This, circumstances notwithstanding, would be a battle for the ages.
The Thunderstrike drew ever closer to the scene of imminent battle, the image growing sharper as the Cat's Eye drew additional data feeds from the airborne vehicle.
"You're persistent," Sho said, highly annoyed. "I will give you that."
"So long as you draw breath," Mumm-Rana began, "I shall hunt you into hell itself."
"Nice to have a fan," Sho deadpanned as his feet found purchase on the hard surface of the desert. "Mind telling me why you're so obsessed?"
"You will destroy this world," Mumm-Rana said yet again. "I shall not allow it."
"That again," Sho hissed. "How many times do I have to say it?! I don't want to destroy this world?!"
"Say it until all the hells freeze over," Mummm-Rana said. "I will never believe it, and I will kill you!"
Have I always had such bad luck with women? Sho thought as he leapt back from a burst of emerald energy which had cratered the earth upon which he once stood. "So far, I'm batting a total zero!"
Sho leapt and dodged as Mumm-Rana fired bolt after bolt of magical energy. Given enough time, he could weather this assault.
She and Mumm-Ra can't be too far removed, Sho thought as he dodged yet another bolt of energy. Her power can't be unlimited. I just have to wait her out and leave. No problem!
"That's wierd," Bengali said as he watched Sho and Mumm-Rana's battle. The image, enhanced via the Thunnderstrike's sensors, showed Guyver leaping about her attacks. By all he had learned, Sho should be beating the hell out of Mumm-Rana by now. Why was he holding back?
Was I wrong?!
Mumm-Rana paused as the Destroyer landed clear of another attack. Why was he not fighting back? Even if he had amnesia, such an ingrained instinct to kill should have manifested itself by now.
What if...
Yes, that made sense.
"Well done, Destroyer."
"Keep that up, and I won't answer to that name anymore."
"Save your snide comments. I know your scheme."
"For the love of God, what are you going on about now?"
"You mean to have me exhaust my power before exercising your own."
Oh, damn, Sho thought.
"To think that I almost fell for the oldest trick in the book!" she cackled, sending bolts of fear through Sho.
"Then how about getting the hell out of my face?" Sho asked. "I already told you that I don't want to fight!"
"So long as I rid Third Earth of you," Mumm-Rana said, hovering just a foot above the ground, "Then I don't care what you say, Guyver!"
"Figures... YOW!"
Almost there, Lion-O thought as the Thunderstrike screamed through the skies of Third Earth. He checked his long range sensors again, and found Mumm-Rana giving far more than Sho was. Why wasn't he fighting back? By all he knew of the boy, he should have been giving as good as he was getting. Why the sudden desire to put on the kid gloves?
Getting a little worn down, Mumm-Rana mused as the Destroyer narrowly avoided another blast. Was he only playing with her? Was his power truly so great that he could disregard her own attacks? Or was it as he claimed? That he had no desire to fight?
No, he MUST! He is the Destroyer!
Mumm-Rana cursed as, despite her adjusted aim, Guyver avoided another of her spells. He stood rooted in place upon landing as if daring her to use her magic again. If he truly wanted that...
Wait...
She felt it nearing the site of their battle. Three Thunderians were approaching rapidly. No doubt they were concerned for their supposed ally.
I know they won't believe me, Mumm-Rana thought. He would have them under his spell by now. Still, best that they not interfere...
Mumm-Rana could not know it, but her decision was completely the wrong one. She raised her palm, sending a spell that stopped the Thunderstrike while simultaneously holding it aloft.
"DAMN!" Lion-O swore as the Thunderstrike stopped as though the air had become solid. Every instrument showed a perfect functionality rate, yet the craft didn't budge an inch!
"What the hell happened?" Tygra's voice said from the intercom.
"Mumm-Rana," Pumyra said, "she's caught us in some kind of spell!"
"Do not fear, Thundercats," Mumm-Rana's magically boosted voice said, "I shall soon rid you of this demon!" On finding the Thunderstrike's outer address system operative, Lion-O replied,
"He is our ally! Why are you attacking him?"
"Oh, crap," Panthro muttered as he saw Mumm-Rana seize the Thunderstrike. "Has she flipped?"
"Why isn't he fighting back?" Bengali asked. "Are her words true, or what?"
"I do not know about her claims," Lynx-O said, "but you are mistaken."
"How?" Bengali asked.
"From what I detect on the braille board," the old one said gravely, "Sho is about to start fighting back."
Sho saw the Thunderstrike imprisoned in midair, encased in an emerald bubble of energy. He felt his anger rise like an eruption of molten lava as he saw the Thundercats held helpless. If she claimed to be a champion of goodness, why attack them?
It wasn't like an epiphany, or as reverent as a revelation, but it was still clear.
"Oh, HELL NO!" Sho focused on her still upraised hand before firing the laser mounted in his helmet. The bright green energy lanced out faster than his enhanced eyes could follow, impacting Mumm-Ranna's forearm with an explosion of gore just a millisecond before the limb fell to the earth. He ignored her howls of surprised pain as the severed limb twitched feebly upon the ground. There was no blood, his laser having cauterized every artery and vein it touched.
Damnit, they're still trapped! he thought as he shifted his aim. If that alone didn't work, he'd have to start pulling out some stops. Sho hoped he wouldn't have to.
"GYAAAH!" Mumm-Rana screamed as her severed arm fell to the ground. She whirled about to face the Destroyer, fury burning in her veins. How... DARE he?!
"Clever trick!" she bellowed, trying to hide the fear which had begun to take root. "But, what do you hope to accomplish?"
"Release them," Destroyer snarled, fury dripping from each syllable. "NOW!"
"No. I will not allow..." The rest of her reply was cut off as he streaked toward her nearly faster than her eyes could follow. Mumm-Rana felt the wind as one of his sonic swords passed within an inch of her face, another swipe to her stomach coming nearly as close.
Why? Why is he only fighting so hard now?
Could it be? She had only a fraction of a second to glance at the still-suspended Thunderstrike before dodging another swipe of his blades.
"LET THEM GO!" The assembled Thundercats and Tuskas heard Sho scream over the live feed. "They're no threat to you! Let them go, damnit!"
Bengali could only watch, transfixed, as Sho went after Mumm-Rana hammer and tongs. Had he been wrong all along? Did Sho truly care about the Thundercats so much that he would wreak such wounds on their behalf?
The albino tiger could truly focus on one thing, that his beloved Pumyra was aboard the Thunderstrike which Mumm-Rana still held imprisoned. Her life, regardless of the circumstances, was in extreme danger, and Sho was likely her only way back home. Fight, damn you, Bengali thought, bring her back to me! His earlier thoughts about Sho and his Guyver had vanished next to the horrible prospect of Pumyra dying out there.
I don't care what you have to do, he thought, just bring her back to me!
Mumm-Rana tried every trick she could think of, yet each was countered before they could bear fruit. The Destroyer was fighting with vigor she had thought once impossible. She tuned out his screams of rage, all of which damned her for imprisoning the Tundercat vehicle, while he tried his best to reduce her to cold cuts.
Then, he changed tactics.
A upward diagonal slash from the blade on his right arm proved to be only a feint, which she noticed too late to prevent his left fist from slamming like a rocket into her temple. Stars novaed across her vision as another, and still another blow landed against her head, her helmet buckling under each impact. A gout of blood flew from her lips as a murderously hard punch nearly caved in her stomach.
"Let them go, damn you!" she heard him scream. Another blow landed to her chest, pain blossoming like a tortured rose. "Let them go and I'll stop!"
Much as she hated to admit it, he was coming closer and closer to killing, actually KILLING, her. Was it possible that he truly cared about the Thundercats? Would he be willing to kill her in order to protect them?
"Look at him go." Turmagar whispered it in the otherwise silent control room.
"Mumm-Rana just made him real mad," Wilykit said in awe.
"She shouldn't have attacked our friends," her brother replied.
"Oh, no," Lynx-O said. "Thunderstrike, do you read me?!"
"Not much else we can do," Lion-O snapped as Mumm-Rana and Sho faced off against each other. The battle was becoming more one-sided by the moment, Sho launching attack after brutal attack without letting Mumm-Rana have any room to use her magics.
"My readings indicate you are safe..."
"Get to it!" Pumyra yelled.
"I detect two distinct energy buildups," Lynx-O said. "The first I see comes from Mumm-Rana, the other I last saw in the raid on Castle Plun-Darr!"
"You don't mean..."
"Indeed I do."
"What kind of danger are they in?!" Bengali asked hotly. On the screen, a battered and gasping Mumm-Rana stood apart from a trembling Sho, each highlighted with streaming data regarding the final, apocalyptic attacks each were preparing. If Pumyra was...
Lion-O, Tygra, and Pumyra each stared down at the two fighters, all three with identical expressions of shock. To think that two of their own allies would fight each other, it was insane! True, Mumm-Rana instigated the battle, but Sho was now giving even better than he got.
"Incredible," Tygra whispered as the two separated by means of a roundhouse kick from Sho against Mumm-Rana's left chest. He could imagine the sound of her ribs exploding from that impact as she flew backward several feet to land in a quivering heap.
"It's because of us," Pumyra said as Sho kept his distance. "Sho wasn't even trying until she trapped us."
"He's not even trying now," Lion-O whispered in response. Brutal as his attacks had been, Lion-O knew that he was still holding back.
Then Lynx-O's warning had come over the communitation array.
"Now," Tygra's voice said, "I think he's trying awful damn hard."
By the Ancients! Even her thoughts were coming in gasps now. How? How could that monster have so much fucking POWER?! Mumm-Rana, the ever living, managed to struggle to her feet. Her vision swam, shifted between blurred colors and blurred grays, as she reached deep within herself for more power.
Can't lift the spell... on the Thundercats, she thought. Need... them safe...
She could feel her own blood coating her tunic, still oozing from a dozen internal wounds. It was as close to death as she had come since her original mortal death, before becoming servant to the Ancient Spirits of Light. She focused past the fear, past the pain. She had one shot left and, succeed or fail, she would take it.
The Destroyer would die, even if it meant her own - final - death.
Sho studied Mumm-Rana through the Guyver's eyes, inwardly sick at the injuries he had caused while still furious at how she had used his own friends as hostages.
I didn't want this, he thought as she stood once more. I don't want this to go where I think it's gonna go.
Fate, it seemed as he watched her power build, seemed not to give a damn about his wants. Sho began to charge the immense beam under his breastplate, resignation coursing through him. Same old shit, he thought, though he did not know why. As their powers built, as the climax rushed closer, Sho wondered why it had to be this way.
If it had to be this way at all?
She's so weak, he realized. Whatever attack she's planning, she's betting the ranch on it.
Maybe I don't have to kill this time? The thought gave him pause as the weapon reached full capacity, his chest beginning to ache.
Mumm-Rana's spell screamed forth, and Sho acted.
This is it, Mumm-Rana thought as the power for the spell fully coalesced. She ignored all the pain of the Destroyer's blows, the intense agony in the stump of her severed arm, and focused only on this last desperate attempt. She could feel energy building with him as well, but it somehow seemed faint. Was he toying with her again?
No time to worry about that. Mumm-Rana recited the chant in her head before letting the immense burst of energy fly.
"Jaga's beard!" Lion-O swore as the blast scorched earth and slammed into where Sho stood. The torrent of power travelled too fast to be seen as it hammered into a rocky outcropping and shattered it in an instant. The Thunderstrike's sensor arrays were overwhelmed, instrument going haywire until several seconds after the burst of raw power faded.
"Sensors back online," Tygra said weakly. Lion-O scanned the results for himself. The field of energy which surrounded the Thunderstrike disappeared, and he brought the craft down to the earth. Mumm-Rana was in even greater danger than she might know!
Mumm-Rana wanted to scream at the unfairness, the injustice of it all. All that power, every last iota of energy she had left in her...
And that son of a bitch had just leapt to the side.
"Damn... you..." Those two words were all she had left for as her body shrank and the bandages, quickly soaked through with blood, wrapped around her once more. Third Earth... She felt the hot, bitter tears fall down her cheeks as her knees hit the hard ground, her torso and head soon following. Damn... damn...
She's crying? Sho realized as he stepped closer, the weapon now powered down. He dimly heard the Thunderstrike touch down as he stared at the tears which streamed from Mumm-Rana's eyes.
He had tried not to kill, yet he may have done so anyway. Sho felt his heart sink into his stomach as Mumm-Rana's blood soaked into the loose sand atop the hard clay of the desert.
"Sho!"
He turned to see Lion-O, Pumyra, and Tygra all staring alternately at him and at Mumm-Rana, each set of cat-like eyes brimming with horror.
"I didn't want this fight," he said. "I did everything I could to avoid it."
"Mumm-Rana is one of our friends," Lion-O said with rising anger. "She may have started this, but..."
"No... Lion... O..."
"Mumm-Rana!"
"I... chose this... let me... be an... example..." Mumm-Rana choked, blood welling in her throat which she violently hacked out onto the ground.
"Example?" Sho asked, incredulous.
"Failed..." Her voice was becoming weaker by the second. Mumm-Rana, somehow, raised herself to her knees. Her ice-chip eyes locked onto Sho's faceplate, defiance and regret warring for dominance in their depths. "Finish it."
"What?"
"Destroyer, you have... won..." Blood was oozing in fatter and fatter streams from the corners of her mouth. "Kill me."
"Mumm-Rana, stop it!" Tygra shouted.
"No, Tygra," she managed, "If I cannot kill him, then I... I..." her words dissolved in a fit of coughing that made even more blood explode from between her lips. "Guy...ver..." she spoke in choked whispers now, "end... it. Don't want... to see... let me die with dignity..."
"No."Sho ignored the horrified looks from the Thundercats. "Too many have died for this armor." He walked over to her prone and vulnerable form. Sho stooped down and, on rising, cradled Mumm-Rana in his arms. She had to have some stronghold on Third Earth.
"The White Pyramid," Tygra said, as if reading his thoughts, "it's her only chance."
"Where is it?" Sho asked. Something began to tingle deep in his mind. A memory? He felt the control medal react, and understood.
"Sho..."
"Where is it?!"
"Two hundred miles to the north," Lion-O said. "You can't possibly..."
Sho tuned Lion-O out as he gently hefted the dying form of Mumm-Rana in his arms. White Pyramid... White Pyramid...
He could envision it, a pyramid of pure white stone - marble, perhaps - surrounded by...
And then he was there.
I have no idea how I just did that, Sho thought as he beheld the lush forest. His footfalls were muted by the thick carpet of grass which stretched about the elm and pine ringed grotto. In the center of this most beautiful place stood a massive pyramid nearly identical to what he had envisioned. At each corner stood a massive spire, brilliant blue energy arcing from their tips to the top of the pyramid.
Several massive stones vanished into thin air as he approached, allowing sunlight into the crypt. His footsteps now echoed like gunshots as he trod a hallway lit with everlasting candles set in golden brackets on the walls. Sho looked down at Mumm-Rana's barely breathing form as he feet carried him into a chamber that gave him momentary pause.
"Whoa." No other word came to his mind. The crypt chamber was bathed in a warm golden light from the dozens of ambrosia-scented torches which adorned the support pillars. On a dias sat a pool of the clearest water Sho had ever seen, and just beyond lay a raised bed in an ornately carved and bejeweled golden frame. Surrounding what he could only guess was her resting place stood four immense statues of beast-like men, eyes turned inward toward the bed.
Not much time left, Sho thought as he gently placed Mumm-Rana onto the gleaming silken sheets. Immediately, blue energy wound up from the floor along the four legs of the bed and into her body. Mumm-Rana's eyes flew open, a deep ragged gasp escaping her lips before they closed once more.
"There's that done," Sho muttered as he looked down at himself, teal armor coated with Mumm-Rana's blood. Finally, he thought as he turned to leave.
"...wait..." her voice was weak and laden with pain. Sho turned back to face her, those narrow blue eyes glaring into his faceplate.
"Rest," Sho said.
"Why... did you... bring..."
"It was the right thing to do," Sho replied. "Somehow I don't think you really get what that means."
"I have served the light for... thousands of years," Mumm-Rana's voice was gaining strength, Sho noticed with some small relief. "Do not DARE... lecture me on what is right."
"Whatever. Too many people have died..."
"And that is your doing."
"Like hell it is!" Sho roared, his temper rising. "I never attacked the Berbils, the Warrior Maidens, damnit I never even attacked YOU!"
"True, yet your presence here precipitated everything. All this chaos follows in your wake."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Sho asked. He could feel something deep in his locked-away mind stir, and dread fell on him like a shroud.
"It is all clear to me, now," Mumm-Rana said, her voice becoming dreamlike. "The path on which you walk has no end, Destroyer, and is paved with the corpses of those you love... and those you hate..."
"Meaning what?"
"You shall never know peace while you draw breath. Know this: Mine is not the only blood that stains your hands."
Sho could say nothing. The dread evolved into full despair at Mumm-Rana's words. It had been something gnawing at his consciousness ever since this war started. Having someone else say it to his face...
"Do not think that saving my life has saved your own for long," Mumm-Rana said. "I shall heal, and I shall face you again."
"Yeah. Whatever," Sho grumbled as he walked away. More blood than hers stained his hands. How much more?
In the next episode:
The Tuskas complete their reinforcement of the Tower of Omens as the Thundercats decide on how to handle the immense power of the Guyver. Evil consolidates as enemies, old and new, plot the destruction of Third Earth's mightiest heroes as the Lunataks attempt their plot. Will it succeed?
Find out in the next episode of One Last War to Fight.
Author's Notes
Holy crap! That has got to be a record for lag time between chapters of a fic! Short form: My computer and my net connection both crapped out. Only recently have I gotten a new one of each.
I had a nearly complete draft of this chapter, and a partial of the next, before my little hiatus. I kept thinking on that draft, and I kept finding myself totally dissatisfied with it. It's still on my old machine, and I started re-typing it on my laptop when it became a complete re-write. The original fight between Sho and Mumm-Rana read more like a Dragon Ball Z battle than a Guyver one, especially with a Wollo village getting wiped out in the process. It really didn't fit with the start of chapter eleven, either.
I hope you all enjoy this, and I look forward to writing more of this fic in the future.
Knight Writer.