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ThunderCats: War of Kings

Chapter XI: Thunder-Walker

Looking through his spyglass while lying on his stomach, Tygra could see soldiers of the traitorous Order of the Hand patrolling the village's perimeter. So far, he'd managed to memorize several of their patrols and he had worked out a weakness.

They, of course, had to avoid the main entrance to the village, where it was guarded by two of the Order's so called ThunderTanks. Tygra had begun to formulate a plan to sneak into the village through one of the gaps in the patrol routes.

"Tygra?" Lynx-O asked. The general was lying on his stomach right next to him. "Are we ready to move in?"

Tygra kept observing the troop movements. "Soon," he said, "we just need—wait a minute! I see something happening."

Tygra watched two soldiers standing next to one of the tanks suddenly stand straight and salute. A third soldier appeared whose helmet was adorned with a gold trident that seemed to mark him as a high-ranking officer.

"I see someone that may be their captain," Tygra said to the blind general. "If we capture him and interrogate him, he could give up the location of the Cat's Lair."

The tiger then realized that he would be one step closer to rescuing Cheetara. One step closer to freeing her from Lion-O's manipulations. One step closer to forging a new future together.

Tygra could see it now, the tiger himself reigning over a peaceful Thundera with Cheetara as his queen. Their two children playing under the supervision of their governess, while the cheetah's belly was swollen with their third. This was how it was meant to be, and when Lion-O and his rebellion were finally put down, it would be a reality.

"When do we move in?" Lynx-O asked, shaking the prince out of his thoughts.

Tygra looked into his spyglass and saw one soldier patrolling on his own, and he saw the weapon that the soldier carried. A plan began to formulate in Tygra's head. Those weapons were somewhat similar to crossbows. If they could manage to take any weapons from the soldiers he and his men could dispatch, they may have a chance to end this as quickly as possible.

"We move now," Tygra said as he and the general rose.

The soldiers that accompanied them rose from the ground as well. The tiger had arrived at Cavahna with thirty soldiers; he had only brought fifteen of them with him to this village. Hopefully, they would be enough to take the village.

Leading both Lynx-O and his men, Tygra maneuvered out of sight of anyone that might randomly look out to the horizon and spot them. Hiding amongst the tall grass, they reached the edge of the village before stopping.

They waited for some time before the lone soldier began to pass by, just as Tygra knew he would. He signaled for his men to stand down until he made his move.

Tygra waited until the soldier was close enough for him to use his whip and then struck with his weapon. The bolos of his whip wrapped around the soldier's ankle and the tiger pulled with all his might. The surprised soldier fell forward, dropping his weapon as he fell on the dirt.

Tygra was quick to pin him to the ground. "Someone grab his weapon," Tygra ordered his men, "and bind his wrists as well as gag him."

The soldiers did as they were told. One cat had picked up the fallen weapon while two others approached the pinned soldier and tied his wrists with rope. They also removed his strange helmet and gagged him with some cloth.

"Private," Tygra addressed the cat that picked up the weapon, "do you think you can handle that thing?"

The Private moved the rifle into a proper grip. "No problem, Your Highness," he said. "It's just like a crossbow; I can handle it fine."

Tygra nodded as some of his men began to complain about the squirming soldier of the Order. The same soldier looked to the tiger as he tried to shout out something incoherent. "Myhmy mrhp," he seemed to be saying.

"What's he squirming about for?" Tygra asked annoyed.

Lynx-O leaned closer to the bound soldier, his ears twitching as it picked up sound. "I believe he's trying to say…booby trap."

"Booby trap?" Tygra said confused. "Why on Third Earth would he—" And just like that, realization struck the prince. He quickly turned to the armed Private, the grip of his newly acquired weapon flashing a white light before turning an angry red. "Private, drop the—"

The warning came too late. Thousands of volts of electric current surged from the rifle's grip and into the Private's body. The soldier's body jerked and the weapon smoked as it delivered its lethal counter-measure.

It was only seconds before the Private dropped the rifle as he fell face-forward, dead before he even hit the ground. All who witnessed this only looked upon both the smoking weapon and the dead body, trying to comprehend what their eyes had seen.

Tygra audibly gulped in fear. "Okay," he said nervously, "let's all remember not to pick up any of those weapons again."

Bursts of static sounded from the soldier's helmet before a voice seemed to be speaking from it. "One of our rifles just activated its theft prevention protocols," the voice said. "All units spread out and search everywhere; have the villagers barricade themselves in their homes as well."

Tygra cursed as he ordered his men to drag their new prisoner into a nearby alleyway. Hopefully, it would provide them with a good hiding place as they tried to formulate a new plan. The prince and general were now down to fourteen men (not counting themselves). They had to find a way to minimize remaining casualties.

Tygra panted as he leaned against the wall. "I can't believe that just happened," he said, shocked. "Why would they make weapons that could do that? It's barbaric!"

"What you call 'barbaric'," Lynx-O began, "I call creative strategy. The weapon kills any enemy that tries to take it for his own and it sends out a message to any other enemy soldiers. Not to mention how it strikes at morale."

Tygra sighed in exasperation. Lynx-O seemed to be admiring their enemy while the tiger tried to think of another plan of attack. They obviously couldn't use the Order of the Hand's weapons or they would be dead.

One of Lynx-O's ears twitched as his body stiffened. "Someone's here," he said softly.

Tygra quirked one of his eyebrows, but before he could say anything, the Order soldier was suddenly running off. The tiger saw that his once bound hands were now free. The ropes seemed to have been cut, but by whom?

The two soldiers that were guarding him ran off to re-capture him. The air shimmered in front of them and an armored figure appeared. He drew a sword from his back and, with one slash, cut down the two cats. His blade had cut through the armor and reached flesh and blood. They were both dead before they hit the ground.

"Traitorous bastard!" one of Tygra's men roared and ran forward with his own sword. The armored figure's hand touched his gauntlet and he disappeared. The soldier swung his sword where the figure once stood, but the blade only hit air.

Tygra bit back a curse. Not only did their captive get away, but two of his men were just killed by one of the invisible swordsmen. The tiger had only heard about the Technology that had allowed them to allegedly defeat Cheetara—a Cleric—when the Royal Palace was attacked.

"How many men did we lose?" Lynx-O asked. The general didn't need eyes to know that there was death in the air.

"We lost two," Tygra sighed. They were now down to twelve men, three of their soldiers killed within minutes of each other.

"We need to move on, Tygra," Lynx-O said. "If we keep sitting here, we'll all be killed!"

The crown prince knew he was right. "Alright," he said, "let's go."

They carefully made their way through the village, peeking through each corner to make sure none of their enemies were around. Tygra swore that if they made it out of here alive, they would go straight back to Thundera and bring an entire army to this village and kill all of these traitors.

"There they are!"

Tygra saw several of the Order's soldiers before they aimed their weapons and fired. Laser bolts flew past the tiger, lynx, and their soldiers as they serpentined through the alleyways. The prince and general, however, had lost three more of their soldiers to the Order and their Technology.

They eventually came out of the alleys and into the center of the village. Tygra, Lynx-O, and the remaining nine men that came with them were surrounded by enemy soldiers, their Technological weapons trained on them.

Tygra saw the officer he spied earlier approach them. He removed his helmet and revealed his panther heritage. "You all must realize that this was a foolish error," he said before he turned to one of his soldiers. "Did you find anyone else?"

"No, Captain," the soldier said. "This seems to be all of them."

"Excellent," the panther nodded. The Captain then addressed the lynx. "The fabled General Lynx-O. I must admit, I would have been honored if we had met under different circumstances."

He then turned to the tiger. "And then there's you," the Captain said in disdain. "Prince Tygra, the False Prince of Thundera. I will only be glad to drag you in front of Lord Lion-O and the council in chains."

"You speak bold words now, traitor," Tygra hissed, "but we'll see how those words matter when our roles are reversed."

The Captain laughed. "Surely you jest, tiger. Look around you, you're surrounded by my men with no hope of escape. The only way you will get out of this alive is if you surrender to us."

Tygra narrowed his eyes in anger. "I'll never surrender to an order of traitors!" he exclaimed boldly.

"You would know the meaning of treachery, tiger," the Captain hissed. "After Mumm-Ra's fall, your clan rose up against Leo, our savior and rightful Lord. You live today because Leo showed mercy and did not wipe your kind off the face of Third Earth."

"But it's not just you," the Captain said. "Claudus seeks to betray both Thundera and Leo's memory by placing you on the throne instead of our rightful king, Lion-O. Not to mention what he did to Her Majesty, Queen Leona."

Tygra balled his fists. "You leave my mother out of this, you bastard!"

"Your mother," that Captain arched his eyebrows. "You talk about the queen as if she birthed you herself. In my opinion, Her Majesty—the gods rest her soul—should have left you in whatever ditch she found you in the first place. After all, you're most likely the reason we're rebelling in the first place."

A cruel sneer appeared on the Captain's face. "No one will ever accept you as their king. The people of Thundera will celebrate as King Lion-O takes his rightful place on the throne and he will bring you and that traitorous bastard Claudus down."

At that moment, one of the Captain's men fell forward. They all looked to see an arrow lodged in the dead soldier's neck, the shaft protruding between the helmet and armor. Whoever did that was most likely an expert archer.

"You said there was no one else here!" the Captain roared to one of his men.

"There wasn't, sir," the soldier said, "I swear!"

"That's because we only just arrived here." The Captain looked to see at least ten archers aiming their bows and arrows at them. They seemed to be led by a bobcat wearing rust-colored armor along with his fellow soldiers. "I am Captain Palles of Cavahna," he said, "I was sent here by Lady Kotiya to reinforce Prince Tygra and his men."

"This is impossible," The Captain said. "How did you get past our ThunderTanks and Ghost soldiers?"

"We managed to capture the soldiers that operate your so-called 'ThunderTanks'," Palles said. "We also managed to lure out these Ghost soldiers of yours."

The Captain flashed a cocky smile. "You do realize this is foolish, Captain Palles," he said. "My men have weapons far superior to yours. You will all be dead within a matter of seconds."

"Unfortunately for you," Palles began, "that is no longer the case. My archers are expert marksmen as you saw with your dead man. You would all have arrows in your throats before you can pull the trigger. I suggest you drop your weapons and surrender."

The Captain looked between his men and Palles's archers. For a moment, Tygra thought that the panther would refuse this chance to surrender, fanatics like him usually didn't.

But the Captain surprised him. "Do as he says," he ordered.

Slowly, all of the soldiers lowered their weapons to the ground as Palles's men approached and bound their wrists together. Tygra and Lynx-O walked to the bobcat. "It's good that you showed up when you did, Captain," the prince said.

"I am only glad that I made it in time, Your Highness," Palles said. "Who knows what they could have done to you and the general."

One of the bobcat's men pointed to one of the houses. "There's another one!"

The three turned to see another soldier of the Order running towards a strange steel building that Tygra did not notice with his spyglass earlier (he was not exactly looking for anything like that). Two of Palles's men and one of Tygra's immediately gave chase. As fast as they were, the soldier was quicker and managed to enter the steel building through a side door before locking it.

"He won't be able to stay in there forever, Your Highness," Palles addressed the prince. "He'll have to come out of there eventually."

"I have a bad feeling about this," Lynx-O said.

"What do you mean?" Tygra asked, rounding on the general.

"I do not believe he went in there to seek a hiding place," Lynx-O said. "He may be trying to arm himself."

Tygra could hear the panther laugh quietly to himself. "And may I ask what is so funny?"

The sound of scraping metal could be heard as the front of the steel building opened like a set of double doors. The three soldiers stood in shock before one of them stepped closer to peer into the darkness.

He had no time to react as a steel leg stepped out of the shadows, its metal foot crushing the soldier into a bloody mess. Bursts of light shot out and killed the last two soldiers.

Tygra watched in horror as a huge metal beast walked out of the steel building. The legs were like that of a bird, with what appeared to be a cat's head above them. A pair of arms protruded from the head, with a laser weapon on one side and a missile launcher on the other.

"You were all fools to come here," the Panther mocked. "Our new Thunder-Walker will annihilate you all."

Tygra watched his men and Palles's scatter as the Thunder-Walker opened fire with its laser, beams of light killing those that were caught in their paths. The steel behemoth launched one of its missiles, taking out four soldiers at once.

"What are we supposed to do?" Tygra asked in desperation. "That thing is unstoppable."

"Everything has a weak point, Tygra," Lynx-O said calmly, "something we can use to our advantage. You must find that weakness and strike at it."

Tygra looked to the so called "Thunder-Walker". He watched the steel monstrosity walk around in search of its newest target. The tiger looked to its legs. He wondered if he could somehow tip that thing over.

"I have an idea," Tygra said to the lynx and bobcat, "but I'll need the two of you to help me."

"What's the plan?" Palles asked.

Tygra looked to the bobcat. "I need you to lure him down the street, Captain," the tiger said. "I know it's risky, but it needs to be done."

Palles nodded. "And what will you and General Lynx-O be doing?"

"We'll be trying to bring that thing down," Tygra answered. "Now go!"

Palles nodded as he raced toward the Thunder-Walker, trying to find some way of getting the attention of the person inside. Picking up some large rocks, he threw one of them at the steel monstrosity.

The pilot inside heard the loud thump of stone colliding with metal. He used his controls to turn the cockpit to the left, seeing a bobcat throwing another rock. "Over hear you rusting scrap pile," the soldier yelled as he threw a third rock. "Come and get me."

As the third rock hit the vehicle, the pilot narrowed his eyes behind his visor. "You are one dead bobcat," he said, using the controls to move forward.

Palles dropped the remaining rocks and ran as the Thunder-Walker began its chase. The bobcat began to serpentine as the vehicle behind him began to fire its laser, bolts of energy firing in rapid succession. One blast almost managed to hit the young soldier's foot.

The pilot was so engrossed on his target that he did not notice Prince Tygra's whip on the ground. He did not notice how the tiger and General Lynx-O pulled with all their strength as they brought the whip up when Palles had passed them.

The two cats strained their muscles as the Thunder-Walker's leg got caught in the whip, knocking it off balance. The metal roared as the behemoth fell onto the hard ground.

The hiss of escaping air sounded as a hatch opened and the pilot dragged himself out of the vehicle, grunting in pain as he did. He could hardly do a thing as Palles began to bind his wrists with rope.

"I should kill you for what you did," the bobcat said, "but you are more valuable to us alive."

Palles dragged the pilot over to Tygra, Lynx-O, and the other bound prisoners as their remaining men gathered around. The bobcat could see the villagers peeking out of their homes and shops, looking in shock at the Thunderian soldiers.

"Your Highness," Palles said, "what do you want us to do now?"

"We'll be taking the prisoners to Cavahna for interrogation," Tygra said. "But first, collect all their Technology and set it to flames."

Palles and his men followed the prince's orders, carefully collecting the advanced weapons and setting them on fire. They even managed to set fire to the ThunderTanks and Thunder-Walker. It wasn't long before Tygra took his prisoners out of the village and onto the road to Cavahna.

Leaving the burning tech behind him, the Crown Prince of Thundera considered this a small victory against Lion-O and his order of traitors…and one small step to reclaiming his true love.

"Cheetara," Tygra whispered to himself, "I will free you soon."