Chapter 2: Misunderstandings
The Thundercats scattered and attacked the dark figure, one by one. Lion-O was the first to attack the dark figure. He swung the Sword of Omens at him but the dark figure dodged it. The dark figure jump kicked him in the face, sending him flying to the ground and sliding on his back. Cheetara strikes the dark figure with her staff, circling around him with lightning speed, but he, merely, blocked her attacks by grabbing her staff and judo flipped her into some bushes, which broke her fall, behind him. The dark figure retains his pose towards the others. Angry at what he did to Cheetara, Tygra cloaked himself and used his fists against the dark figure. Through his helmet, the dark figure changed his vision to inferred to see Tygra's heat signature and began blocking his attacks until he grabs Tygra by his lower, right arm, pulls him closer, and knees him in the abdomen.
Visible, Tygra was on his knees, coughing. He looks up and sees the dark figure in front of him, in which he, sarcastically, exclaims, "Well, if you're going to finish me off, please leave my face unharmed. It took me awhile to look this good."
The dark figure just stood there, tilting his head to the side, curiously looking at the tiger. He turns away from Tygra and ignores him. Tygra, slowly, stood up and used his bolo whip to strike from behind. The dark figure tilts his head, again, dodging the bolo whip as it passes him. He grabs it at the end of the three diamond-shaped objects, pulls the whip out of Tygra's hands, and throws it to the ground.
Tygra was shocked, looking at the back of the dark figure's head with his eyes wide and said, trembling, "W-what are you?" It was shocking for Tygra because no one was able to block his bolo whip.
No response. He just walked away. Panthro was up next, standing in front of the dark figure the dark figure with his arms crossed and a grin on his face.
"Now, where do you think you're going," said Panthro, rhetorically. He held his palms flat like a blade, doing the same martial art pose like the dark figure. "I hope you're tough enough to deal with me?"
While Panthro dealt with the dark figure, Cheetara grabbed Tygra, carry him princess-style, and brought him into the forest where the others were. She ran back and grabbed Lion-O, carrying him in the same style as Tygra.
Panthro and the dark figure walked in a circle, keeping an eye on each other. The dark figure was in a pose similar to a drunken monkey. He charges at Panthro but Panthro dodges and rolls to the left. He gets up and swings his nunchucks. The dark figure dodges. Left and right; up and down, the dark figure dodges Pathros' attacks and strikes with a 540 kick but Panthro dodges it by leaning back.
"Now, Pumyra!" Panthro shouted, walking backwards, away from the dark figure.
Pumyra jumped out of a tree, leaping into the air and firing arrow-shaped pellets from her wrist-mounted crossbow at the dark figure. She fired 50 pellets at the dark figure. He blocks it but that proved to be useless as the pellets started piercing through his suit, leaving holes on his sleeves. He started pressing buttons on his left wrist and produced a blue, oval-shaped shield, blocking her attacks.
Feet on the ground, she expressed anger towards the dark figure. She pulled out her bola and starting swirling it around. She charged and threw it between his ankles but he somersaulted, backwards, dodging her attack. Oblivious that it was a trap, Panthro grabs the dark figure and prevented him from escaping. The dark figure began to struggle and, eventually, elbowed Panthro in the abdomen, causing him to release him and fall to the ground, feeling such pain.
Next, it was the Wilys. Kat pounced and started biting at the dark figures helmet while Kit started playing her flute; both attacks were proven useless. He pries Wilykat off his helmet and grabs Wilykit, holding them by the back of fabric of their clothes, and placing them on some bushes—the same ones Cheetara was thrown into—with ease. He looks at them, trying to say something to them but only static came out. He then says to them in a different language than before: "Anata wa jibun, jishin, chisana mono o kizutsukeru mae ni koko ni taizai." He walks away but looks back to see the cubs, noticing the confused look they were giving him. It wasn't in his nature to hurt children.
Lion-o and Tygra were brought behind a group of trees that stood in front of the dark figure's ship. Lion-o was leaning against a tree, facing his brother while pain coursed through his face. He sees Tygra, rubbing his abdomen with his right arm, calming the pain that was coursing through his waist.
"Gods, there's no stopping this guy," said Tygra, looking at the dark figure as he was now fighting Panthro. He looks at Lion-o, noticing the pain he was feeling. "He really did a number on you, huh, bro?"
"Same with you," they both laughed, softly. However, they stopped laughing after they felt the stings of the pain in their body.
Pumyra left to attend to the others' wounds. She sat on her knees, examining the lion's face. She felt her heart racing from touching Lion-O's face but felt a surge of rage towards the dark figure. She said to her king with a worried look in her amber eyes, "Are you hurt anywhere else?"
"No, just my face; it's nothing important but you should take a look at Tygra's wounds," Lion-O replied. Pumyra removed her hands from Lion-O's face and walked over to Tygra, examining his abdomen.
She pressed the thumb of her right hand at his sides. "Ow!" was his response. It felt like he was hit in the stomach by a brick. He says to her while in pain, "How serious is it?"
"Don't worry, it's just a mild wound; it's nothing serious but you shouldn't be moving right now," Pumyra replied. She looks at Lion-O and says with a stern look, "Same goes to you; your majesty."
Lion-O, slowly, got up off the ground. The Sword of Omens was still in his hands. It took what little energy he had left just to stand up. He turned and saw Panthro, battered and worn out, still fighting the dark figure. The dark figure, on the other hand, just stood there doing nothing.
"Whiskers, Panthro's not going to hang in that long," Lion-O thought. As Lion-O was about to go over and aid his general, Cheetara stopped him, placing her left hand on his right shoulder. The feel of her hand made him blush a little.
"Lion-O, before you do anything you might regret, look, closely, at what's going on," Cheetara contended. His blue eyes looked into her red eyes, both seeing the trust that appeared. He nodded and did what she said. Lion-O observed the dark figure's moves and noticed something odd about them. He sees Panthro throwing the next punch with his right, mechanical fist but his attack was blocked and counterattacked with a punch to the stomach, sending the general falling to the ground. "Now, do you see what's happening?"
He turns to her and the others and commented to what Cheetara said with his blue eyes wide open in realization, "I see what you're saying, Cheetara. He's not attacking us; he's defending himself against us. We attacked him first and he reacted in self-defense. To him, we're the enemies."
Lion-O ran, entering the battle while brother shouts out "Don't do anything stupid!" behind him. Lion-O ran in front of the dark figure while Panthro was lying on the ground, feeling like every bone in his body was shattered into dust. As Lion-O stood, the dark figure reverts to his defensive pose until the lion king started reasoning with it.
He places the Sword of Omens back into his claw shield "Look, we are not your enemy. We come in peace. I know our response may have seemed hostile to you but I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive us for this misunderstanding. What do you say?"
The young lion reaches out his left hand, wanting to shake the dark figure's hand as a sign of peace. The dark figure responds to his gesture. He touches the two, circular disks on the sides of his helmets, turning them around and pressing them like a button. Lion-O watched as steam came out of the dark figure's helmet, removing it and surprised at what was underneath.
He places his helmet under his left armpit and, finally, speaks to the lion king as he shakes his hand, "I am glad to put this misunderstanding behind us. I am sorry for the damage I inflicted on you."
He didn't have fur on his face but only on his head: long, black hair that reached down to his neck. He had pink skin with thick eyebrows. He had an unusual eyecolor: green
Lion-O introduced himself and his subjects to their new found friend: "I'm Lion-O, Lord of the Thundercats. Behind me is my general, Panthro, and over by the trees are my cleric, Cheetara, my brother, Tygra, and my warrior, Pumyra. And, lastly, the cubs you placed in those bushes are the Wilys: Kit and Kat."
The cubs ran behind their king, holding the fabric of his pants while looking at the person they were fighting. The others appeared, as well. Tygra and Cheetara were helping Panthro up while Pumyra stood next to her king with her arms crossed.
The dark figure introduced himself to Lion-O and the others. He closed his legs together and salutes with his right: "Elijah Robertson, captain of the Armed Forces of the Terran Federation; Generation 2 super-soldier."
He places his right hand down and looks at the cubs. They were amazed that he was speaking a language they understood.
"You were speaking in a different language. How can you be speaking in our language?" asked Wilykat.
Elijah's raised his left eyebrows and explained to the young cub. He crouched down and explained: "Well, you see, this helmet I'm holding acts as a universal translator. It can translate any word I say into a language better understood by another human or another species. However, it seems that my helmet must've gotten damage from impact. Besides, I don't even need a universal translator. I'm a polyglot; I can speak several languages, human or other."
As he stood up, Elijah noticed the hostile look Pumyra was giving him, causing him to tilt his head in curiosity. Lion-O broke the tension and invited their new friend over to their tent, which shocked the others.
"I am honored that you would invite me to your campsite but I must do something here, first," Elijah replied. He walks to his ship and removes something from its compartment. He continued without turning away from the inside of his ship. "I'll be right with, just give me a few minutes."
Lion-O nodded with an "okay" and headed back to their campsite with his subjects following him. 15-minutes-later, the Thundercats were waiting for Elijah around a dying fire. They were sitting in the same spots as before, except for Panthro whom was now sleeping in the Thundertank. The Wilys were now sitting beside Lion-O with Kat sitting on the right and Kit sitting on the left. Pumyra was applying ointment to Tygra's abdomen, telling Cheetara to hold him still while she bandaged him. As she finished, she told Tygra that it was now okay for him to put his shirt back on. After Tygra, she walked over to Lion-O and started patching his face. Seeing the older female touching Lion-O's face made Kit fluster, wrapping her arms around Lion-Os' and giving Pumyra and stern look. Pumyra saw Wilykit's look and laughed on the inside, thinking it was cute.
Feeling tired, Lion-O closed his eyes to rest but kept his senses sharp to Elijah's presence. He, quickly, opened his eyes, hearing movement in the woods.
"Well, it's good that you finally showed up, Elijah," said Lion-O, sensing his presence as he walked up behind him. "So what was it you were looking for in your ship?"
Elijah walked around and sat in and eastern side of their bonfire; Cheetara and Tygra were sitting in the north, and Lion-O, the cubs, and Pumyra were sitting in the south. In his hands was a spherical, metal device, covered in glowing, blue lines. He looked at Lion-O, giving him a stoic expression, noticing the lion looking at what he was holding.
He stated "that's classified" to Lion-O's question and turned his head towards the cubs, noticing them staring at him with a frightened expression. He turned his head and looked at Tygra, noticing the judgmental stare he was making towards him. It wasn't just Tygra, Pumyra made the same kind of glare. Cheetara, on the other hand, gave a different look. In her eyes were the eyes of understanding.
"Your companions seem uncomfortable around me and I don't blame them," He turns to Lion-O with his right eyebrow. "Our first encounter wasn't so smooth and, instead of peace and hospitality, it led to a brawl."
Tygra smiled and remarked, "Yeah, those were some impressive moves you used."
"Indeed, my martial arts skills were known throughout the Academy as being impressive but, also, lethal. That's why I only inflicted minimum casualties onto you," Elijah added, looking down at the device he held in his hands and giving a sad grin.
"Huh, so what would you consider maximum casualties?" asked Tygra.
"Well, if I inflicted maximum casualties on you, then we wouldn't be having this conversation," Elijah explained, producing a grin on his face.
It was close to midnight; Lion-O stood up and stretched, cracking his neck and other joints. "Man, it's getting late. Well, I think it's time for us to get some sleep. Agree?"
They' all nodded and headed into the Thundertank. Lion-O stopped and spoke to Elijah while he was behind the lion king.
"So, Elijah, we should, probably, assign you a room since you'll be staying-" Lion-O turned around and noticed Elijah was nowhere to be seen, that is, until he heard sounds of boots rubbing against metal. He walked over to the hood of the tank and saw Elijah, climbing up on the hood and sitting down with his legs, facing the trees and began meditating.
Lion-O's eyes widened in curiosity; scratching the back of his head with his left hand and raising his right eyebrow. He shrugs his shoulders and walks back into the Thundertank. Lion-O was in his room, lying in his bunk with Snarf lying on his stomach.
Door opening, Wilykit walks tip-toes into Lion-O's room. She stood beside his bed and wakes the sleeping king. Eyes opened, he looks at Kit and says in a drowsy tone of voice, "Kit, what are you doing in my room?"
"I-I couldn't sleep because Kat kept kicking my leg. Lion-O, would it be okay if sleep with you?" said Kit, whispering so to not wake Snarf.
Lion-O was too tired to think. So he just said "sure" and let her sleep beside him. Wilykit got under the covers and slept beside Lion-O. However, as Lion-O fell fast asleep, Kit leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. She made a sly grin and thought in her head: "Wilykit-1; Pumyra-0" and went back to sleep, cuddling without waking the sleeping lion.
Elijah began meditating, holding the metal sphere in his hands, trying to see visions of enlightenment and of peace, but, throughout his life as a soldier, there was no peace and enlightenment, only war and destruction.
Flashback:
He was on board the Achilles, the military station in the Alpha Centuari. It had a cylinder shape with a circling the middle. On the top and bottom were ionic cannons on each, four sides. Elijah walks down a metal corridor and enter a room through an automatic sliding door. In the room, there was a large, circular table with, at least, twelve seats and in front of the seats were ashtrays. Sitting were seven people, sitting down and sharing conversations with one another.
As Elijah walks in, he salutes and addresses the person sitting in the north side of the table as "general" and sits down, facing his superior. General Salveas Amon was his name and was the most strict and militaristic military officer throughout the Federation. He was a man who appears in his 60s. He had short, black hair cut in a high and tight style. His eyes were a shade of brown, indicating that he's 'normal,' and had gray sideburns.
"You wanted to see me, sir?" asked Elijah.
"Indeed, captain. I called you and your team here to discuss some...important matters," the general replied. He spoke with a light, French accent. "Do you remember the Ulysses?"
Elijah raised his right eyebrow. He hadn't heard that name since he was in history class at the Academy, "Yes, it was a military vessel built to protect special cargo from any hostile threat but, for the past 200 years, it's been lost to us."
"So what does this history lesson have to do with anything?" asked the man sitting next to Elijah.
The general placed the cigar he held in his hand in the ashtray in front of him and displayed a serious look. He says to him, "Because, Maximilian, it was recently sighted in the Aldoran Star System. It was sighted by asteroid miners while they were mining for Tiberium."
Everyone round started dropping their jaws, shocked at what they were hearing. Maximilian and Elijah looked at each other in amazement and looked back at the general. General Ammon leaned forward with elbows on the table, his left hand molded into a fist, and his right hand on his left with his chin over it.
"Elijah, I summoned you and your unit for a mission. I want you and your unit to investigate what went down on the Ulysses and recover what they were protecting."
"What!" both Elijah and Max shouted in unison.
"Yes and if you find any archives that could tell you about the ships disappearance, bring that too, but if you find the crew, or their descendents, bring them here, as well."
"Wait. Why do you want us to do this mission?" Max asked, rubbing the back of his head, tracing his fingers in his blonde, spiky hair.
The general sighed, relieving the stress in his body. His old eyes stared at Elijah and answered the lieutenant's question. He explained to the them and the others, "It's because, over the past two centuries, there have been rumors, stories, of the Ulysses being haunted by the spirits of the crew. These rumors made many of our troops feel uncomfortable from hearing the name. It's the reason why many of our academy students started having nightmares from the teachings of the ship but you and your team have went through worse things to be scared by stories. That's why I chose you for this mission."
There was no response. Everyone was silent until Elijah broke the silence. He stood up and saluted to the generals' offer. He placed his hand down and replied, "We won't let you down, sir."
2-hours-later, he walks into the stations' hangar, walking towards his ship, the Prometheus. Waiting for him was his unit. The Dark Angels is what they called themselves, consisting of 20 soldiers; seven from the meeting and thirteen others. They each formed a line at the entrance, saluting the captain as he enters his ship but that's when another memory appeared, replacing the previous one he was seeing.
Elijah was on board the Ulysses, covered in blood and holding a silver Glock 44 in his right hand. He hands started to shake, hearing loud roars and screams coming from the dark hallways. He was in the bridge, hearing the ship's computer, telling everyone in a feminine voice that the ship's self-destruct sequence had been activated: "Attention, you have 40 seconds 'til the ship self-destructs. 39, 38, 37, 36..."
Elijah ran to the ship's hangar where the rest of his unit was at but stopped when he spotted Joshua, his second lieutenant. He was running towards Elijah from the hallways, holding a sphere-shaped object in his hands with a towel wrapped around it.
"Captain, I got it! I got the...!" he stopped, moving slowly as his speed decreased. Stopping, Joshua fell; face first, to the ground. A dagger attached to a chain pierced through his back, losing lots of blood. The chain was pulled, causing the dagger to return into the dark. Horrified, Elijah drops his gun and runs over to save his fallen soldier. He grabs Joshua, carrying his second lieutenant over his left shoulder with his left arm holding him by the waist and holding the towel-covered object under his right armpit.
Elijah ran to the hangar as fast as he could, feeling the weight of the two things he was carrying.
Max and two others were in front of the ship, standing guard from whatever hostile threat lurked. Like Elijah, their uniforms were covered in blood and rips, appearing as if they were in battle.
"Look, it's the captain!" shouted private Sugisaki, pointing as Elijah ran to the ship. They were relieved that he survived. As Elijah got on board, Max continued speaking, watching Elijah as he carried Joshua's body, "Cap, what happened!"
Max heard the roars and ordered the two back into the ship. Elijah placed Joshua in sick bay, shouting to the others, "We need a medic in here!"
The ship takes off, leaving the hangar through the force field and leaving as the Ulysses explodes behind them. Elijah was sitting in the bridge, holding and looking at the towel-covered object but he looked up and saw Johnathan, one of his privates, standing in front of him and giving him a stern look.
He clinched his fists and whispers, "You killed him" in which, Elijah replies, "Excuse me?" before Johnathan sucker punches him in the face.
Two privates intervened, grabbing the angry soldier by the arms and pulling him away from the captain. Johnathan struggled, trying to break free so he could continue beating his superior.
The private holding his left arm, Ricardo, looks at Johnathan and says to him, "Johnathan, what the hell are you doing? This is subordination."
Johnathan wasn't listening but just continued struggling. Ricardo looks into his eyes and saw nothing but rage.
"You did this! Because of you, Joshua is dead! He was our brother and you let him die! You sent him to find that...that thing and it cost him his life! It was his first mission and now he's dead, our brother is dead!" Joshua scolded his captain.
Elijah didn't say anything; he just kept rubbing his chin. "Take the private away and lock him in his quarters. Let him out only when he calms down," Elijah ordered. His two privates took Johnathan away, hearing him roar, blaming him on Joshua's death. Elijah stood up and was preparing to head back to his quarters. Monique, his corporal, was standing behind him. She placed her right hand on his shoulder and said to him, "Capitaine, it is not your fault. You're not responsible for this."
He didn't say anything. He walks away, removing her hand from his shoulder. Elijah sat on his bed, looking at the object he was still holding. He started talking to it, "It's all because of you that one of my brothers is dead. What is so god damn important about you that this would happen?"
He opens it and sees it for what it really was; a metal orb with glowing, blue lines around it.
His eyes snap open, noticing that he was on top of the hood of the Thundertank. Elijah looks down and sees he's still holding the orb in his lap. Tears running down from his eyes, he begins to cry, placing his hands on his face and sobs. This was going to be a long night.
To be concluded.