The ThunderTank thundered along the ground as they headed towards Mount Plun-Darr.
As they rode Pumyra began to give some details as to what they were made to do, and who it was that told them to do it.
From what they could understand they were basically rats.
The tank slowly came to a stop and everyone stepped out seeing they were a pretty good distance from the mountain.
Everyone filed out and was making sure that none of the rats on guard would be able to see them and carefully moving from rock to rock.
Soon, they reached the blind spot and snuck past their surveillance and going near the slave camps.
They looked down as they watched Cat slaves going in and out of tunnels and all of them exhausted and tired as they moved around the mining gear and supplies.
"I can't stand to see our people treated like this." Said Cheetara in disgust.
"Try living it." Said Pumyra.
"For months I suffered lashings from those rodents, we gave up hope of being saved long ago." Said Pumyra as she glared at the others.
"Today they will go free, that's a promise." Said Tygra.
"You say it's the Sword of Plun-Darr that old rat is digging for?" Asked Panthro.
Pumyra nodded.
"If what I learned through the Book of Omens is true, its power rivals my own sword." Said Adam as he looked down at his sword and gauntlet.
"If Mumm-Ra finds that weapon, it may not matter if I get to the other stones first." Said Adam.
Adam looked at the others.
"That why I have to find that Sword and Gauntlet before those Rats or Mumm-Ra does." Said Adam.
"By yourself?" Asked Panthro in shock.
"I'm the only one who's ever seen the sword, there I have to be the one to find it." Said Adam as he stood up.
"Not by yourself your not, I'm going with you." Said Carter as he stood up.
Cassandra stood up.
"And you'll need me because I have this." Said Cassandra as she held up a scroll.
"What's that?" Asked Adam.
"It's a map of their tunnel system, I swiped it from them a few weeks ago." Replied Cassandra.
"When?" Asked Carter in suspicion.
"Oh, not important." Said Cassandra as she unrolled the scroll to reveal the tunnel system.
"Fine, you can come too." Said Adam with a sigh.
"Okay so that's our plan: Tygra, Cheetara, Panthro and Pumyra, you focus on freeing your kind while me, Carter and Cassandra try to find the Sword and Gauntlet before the Rats does." Said Adam.
Everyone nodded and they split up.
After some more sneaking around, Cassandra got a hold of three cloaks for she, Adam, and Carter to wear and Carter got three pairs of handcuffs.
Their plan was to sneak in with the slaves to get to the dig site where they could find the Sword of Plun-Darr.
As they were walking in the lines with the slaves Carter turned to them.
"This is a terrible idea, by the way." Said Carter.
"I'm with Carter." Said Cassandra from behind him.
"We could have just snuck around the guards!" Yelled Cassandra.
"This is the only we could sneak right into their mining without causing a commotion." Said Adam.
He held up his hand.
"Besides, these chains aren't even locked." Said Adam.
"You three!" Yelled A voice from behind them.
They all froze as well as the rest of the line.
One of the rat guards came up to them, looking over their appearances.
They lowered their heads a little, trying to hide their appearances from him but also looking a little afraid of getting caught.
The rat looked at their wrists and began to lock the handcuffs.
"That's better, wouldn't want you running off and getting hurt." Said the rat.
The guard moved away and began to inspect the cuffs of the slaves behind them in order to make sure there was nothing wrong with them and the two girls turned and glared at Adam.
He shrugged sheepishly.
"At least this will make our disguises more convincing." Said Adam.
Both Cater and Cassandra sighed.
Soon it didn't take them much longer after that to reach the dig site and they joined a huge group of Cats.
As they were walking in a few Rats came up from below, saying that the last cave in had been cleared, and it would be easy for them to enter.
"All right, who's next?" Asked the guard to a crowd of slaves.
A fearful murmur flowed through the crowd as all Cats staying close to their loved ones in the group.
The Rat sighed.
"Don't all jump at once." Said The rat sarcastically.
At the rate we're losing Cats, you'll all get your chance." Said The Rat as his eyes scanned through the crowd,
"How about-" Said the guard before being cut off.
"We'll go." Said Adam.
The crowd of slaves gasped in surprise as they stepped forward.
"Finally some brave Cats." Said the head Rat.
"Let's see if your cockiness saves you from the sword's curse." Said the head rat.
Two guards went over and unlocked their handcuffs, and they walked out onto the platform.
The Rats hit a switch and it started to lower down further underground.
Once they were completely out of sight and surveillance, they removed the cloaks.
"Did he say 'curse'?" Asked Cassandra.
"It's probably just superstition to keep the slaves scared." Said Carter.
"I hope you're right." Said Cassandra as she was looking around the tunnel.
"I don't think it's wise to think that, after all we are in a world filled with anthropomorphic animals who can wield magic and I hold two magic stones." Said Adam as he pointed out.
Carter let out a scoff.
"Yeah, right." Said Carter.
Suddenly the thick rope holding up the platform snapped and they all began to plummet down the hole.
As they fell Carter used his earth powers to create pillars to hold them.
The three of them hung there while the platform continued to plummet and crashed on the ground with a loud bang.
Adam turned to Carter with a small glare.
"No curse, huh?" Asked Adam sarcastically.
Carter shrugged.
"I can admit when i'm wrong." Said Carter.
Carter lifted up his hand, and waved it down to move the pillars down to the bottom of the tunnel.
Once they were there Cassandra pulled out a large glow stick to act as a light as they went through the tunnel with Cassandra holding the map.
Adam kept glancing back uneasily at the crashed platform.
"What are looking for?" Asked Carter as he noticed Adam looking around.
"The Cats who died down here." Replied Adam as he was wary of this curse as the other two.
"Technically we've only heard that Cats died, it's not like they had proof." Said Cassandra.
She looked at the remains of a cave in and was seeing the skeleton of someone had been pierced by a stone.
She turned back to the others.
"Never mind." Said Cassandra.
The tunnel suddenly began to shake and rumble as more stalactites fell from the ceiling of the tunnel and everyone began to run from it towards a more covered part of the dig site.
They dashed as quickly as they could to the end of the tunnel and once they were all in safely as the rumbling stopped and the stalagmites no longer fell.
Everyone was panting from the sudden mad dash they had done.
"Guys, look." Said Adam as he pointed to a large red crystal ahead of them with it inside the Sword of Plun-Darr.
"How did the Sword of Plun-Darr get in there?" Asked Cassandra.
"Who cares, lets just find out on how to get it out and how to destroy it." Said Carter.
Adam reached out and touched the crystal where the sword was placed.
He closed his eyes as he took in the feeling of the magic surrounding it.
"I can sense a strong energy around it, but it's not evil, it's more like there's a coating of energy over the really dark energy that the sword has." Said Adam as he pulled his hand back from the crystal and opening his eyes.
"So how do we get it out?" Asked Carter.
"I know this is going to sound really weird, but I think the Sword of Omens." Said Adam as he pulled out his sword from his gauntlet and it was glowing a blue aura while at the same time the Sword of Plun-Darr was making a purple aura, as though it knew it was here.
"The Sword of Plun-Darr is made of the same metal as my Sword of Omens and the magic feels like it flows through me." Said Adam.
He grasped his sword and lengthening it.
It glowed as he thrust it at the crystal into right where the object was and it shattered and leaving a hole just big enough for the object which revealed itself to be the Gauntlet of Plun-Darr to rest in.
"I guess all that nonsense about this thing being—" Said Cassandra before she was cut off.
Adam scowled at her and he glared firmly back at her/
"Do. Not. Taunt. The. Curse." Said Adam in firmness.
Cassandra rolled her eyes but said nothing as she reached up and tried to pull the gauntlet from the crystal.
When she couldn't get it out, Adam and Carter grabbed other sides of it to help her pull it out.
They all gave a hard tug, and it came out from where it was trapped.
They smiled at their success, but they quickly disappeared as the tunnel began to shake again and rocks began to fall.
"Should we make a run for it?!" Asked Cassandra in fear.
"Don't need to!" Yelled Adam.
He lifted up his hand and the Spirit Stone glowed to create a shield to protect them from the falling rocks.
They all hit the ground around the shield but never the shield itself.
After a moment the boulders stopped and so did the shaking.
There was nothing but silence now.
"I think it stopped." Said Adam as he lowered the shield.
They looked out at the fallen boulders.
They were unable to believe they survived something like that.
Soon enough all three reached down and picked up the large gauntlet.
Because of its size, it was a little hard to carry it.
When they reached the top they found it was empty of both slaves and guards and wondered where they were.
"They must have fled when the earthquake started, hopefully the others helped them already." Said Adam.
They continued walking through the mountain and were finding it was completely empty of any and all rats.
As they reached the exit they saw a huge crowd of Cats walking away from the mountain and there were no chains on them and they all seemed happy.
They kept walking towards where the crowd was coming from and saw Panthro taking off the chains of different slaves.
When it came down to the last one his chains fell down into a huge pile.
He rubbed his wrists as he was feeling the skin that had rested underneath the metal and smiled at Tygra.
"Thank you." Said the cat gratefully as Tygra told him the recent news to slaves about a new king.
"Ratar-O fled back underground." Said Tygra.
"You'll be safe in the old settlement just outside the ruins of Thundera." Said Tygra.
The Cat nodded and bowed in gratitude before walking away to join the others.
"That's every cat accounted for, except for Adam, Carter and Cassandra." Said Panthro as he sighed.
"What if they couldn't find the sword?" Asked Cheetara in worry.
"As if there was any doubt." Said Adam from behind.
The others looked back and everyone smiled when they saw Adam, Carter and Cassandra holding the gauntlet.
"It seems things go well on your end." Said Adam as he looked at the slaves walking off into the tunnels.
"Well enough." Said Tygra as he shrugged.
Everyone looked down at the Sword of Plun-Darr.
"Is that?" Asked Tygra.
Adam nodded.
"Mumm-Ra's sword." Said Adam.
"This isn't a weapon for Cats to wield." Said Cheetara.
"We need to take this somewhere and hide it, maybe the Tower of Omens and we need to do it before Mumm-Ra finds out we dug it up." Said Adam as he looked down at the sword.
"It's too late for that." Said Panthro.
Everyone looked up and saw him pointing to the horizon where a huge army was approaching the mountain and they were armed to the teeth.
Everyone's eyes had widened.
How could Mumm-Ra have found out already?