Chapter 21
"Remind me again why we're trying to search for an escape pod in the middle of winter in the dark?" Lea asked as she shivered in her seat aboard the ThunderStrike. Panthro was flying the craft with the heater blasting as the temperature outside had once again dipped into the single digits and well below freezing.
"Because it won't take long for the Mutants to find out we took Chilla's family off of their moon. They'll blow it up and then our evidence will be in itsy-bitsy pieces all over the mountains," Mandora said.
"I like a good jigsaw puzzle," the lioness teased.
"I think I have something metal on the sensors," Ben-Gali chirped in from the pod he was riding in. The tiger would be able to launch and land anywhere while the ThunderStrike would need to find a good sized clearing to do so. This would enable Ben-Gali to get working on disabling the homing beacon and clearing the explosives before the rest of the team arrived.
"Double check the sensors before launching. At this temperature, you could be getting false readings," Panthro instructed.
"I believe it. I think my toes are already frozen," the tiger chuckled into the radio.
"I'm sweating to death. Trying to keep the ladies from freezing," the panther smirked for which he got a smack in the back of the head from his beloved.
"Oooooh that smarts," Ben-Gali laughed as he could hear the smack on his end of the radio. He quickly double checked his readings and confirmed what he originally thought.
"Mutant escape pod located. Launching pod now," he told the main cabin.
"Check. We'll circle and look for a good place to land," Panthro told him. With that Ben-Gali launched the pod and guided it toward his landing spot. Luckily the ship wasn't covered in too much snow and he began cleaning it off in order to find the door.
Mandora, Lea, and Panthro looked for a decent place to land and luckily found one not too far away. The panther set the ship down and then they disembarked. The snow crunched beneath their feet because it was so cold.
"I think I'll start a fire when we get there," Lea's teeth chattered. They wore their incredibly warm ThunderSuits but given the lioness was still getting over her frostbite, she had yet to really feel warm unless wrapped in blankets or the panther.
"Sounds like a plan," Mandora's teeth were chattering too.
"I packed a heater inside the kit. We'll be able to work inside the ship and heat the inside of it without plugging anything into it. We need to fly this bugger back to the Lair but we can't turn it on until we disable that homing chip. If the Mutants see that the ship is moving, they might blow it up anyway," Panthro told them, fighting to keep his own teeth from chattering.
"This is true. I wouldn't put anything past them at this point," Mandora agreed. Arriving at the ship, they found that Ben-Gali was already inside.
"I've got the extra tool kit and the heater," Panthro told him.
"Good. Close the door and crank that sucker," Ben-Gali said as he continued to check over the instrument panel, trying to find what they were looking for.
"So why didn't my brother join us on this fun trip?" Lea asked as she pulled out the heater, set it on the floor, and activated it. It was a contraption of Panthro's invention that used Thundrillium batteries to run which allowed them to be taken anywhere and did not require lighting wood on fire or plugging it into an electrical source.
"He said he had to talk to Li-en. Seemed like an odd thing to say but I could tell by his tone, he wasn't looking forward to it," Mandora told her.
"Oh and I don't envy Li-en either," Ben-Gali shook his head as he found the main electrical panel.
"Oh do tell," Mandora said.
"Let's just say he completely disregarded a direct order from his King," Panthro said as he handed Ben-Gali a screwdriver.
"That doesn't sound like him," the Evil Chaser was confused.
"It isn't but things haven't really been the same with him since he got injured," Lea explained. Mandora nodded as she wondered how that conversation was going.
To Be Continued…