18

Eye of Thundera

"I don't think building a wall would work very well," Panthro said, shaking his head. "Too impractical. Too easy to be taken down."

"And energy beacons are a good idea, and certainly easier," Cheetara put in. "But they have the potential to be unreliable. And also easy to sabotage."

The ThunderCats and their guests were talking, still at the dinner table of Tygra's ideas for containing the forest.

"That leaves only my final idea," Tygra said. "And I am not sure if I like that idea." This plan had been to simply blast a perimeter of land surrounding the two open sides of the Forest of Mists, blast it so that nothing could grow there, like Darkside.

"But..." said Bengali. "The land on the other two sides isn't that dense volcanic stone Tygra tested in Darkside, is it?" Bengali said. "Eventually, the forest could break it down."

"And," Cheetara said. "Wouldn't we just be doing the same thing as the mists are? Destroying the land?"

There was silence for a few moments.

After a while, Lion-O spoke. "You all bring up good points. But I'm inclined to agree that Tygra's last idea is the best one." He held up a hand to halt the arguments. "Wait. Hear me out." He looked at Cheetara. "Yes, we would be destroying land. But. It would be for one time only, and we only need a perimeter wide enough to extend a few feet farther than the mist can travel beyond the greenery." he looked at Tygra. "Am I right? The mist can only survive a few yards past the trees."

The tiger nodded. "Yes. The trees naturally output a sort of organic force field."

"And it's the gasses that are dangerous," Wilykat said. "Not the trees and plants, so it wouldn't matter if some of them pollinated farther than the barrier. If the mist can't reach them..."

"...even if they grew up mutated, they wouldn't have the mist there making it worse. It could be normal eventually."

Lion-O nodded. "Exactly. And there are enough ways to drive off any wildlife that might be living in the fields before we blast this perimeter."

Tygra nodded, considering. "True..."he said slowly. "I suppose that it is a very small part of Third Earth to destroy to keep the forest from doing it for us."

"Right."

"That only leaves Bengali's observation left unresolved," Lynx-O said.

Again, silence, and Lion-O looked down at his weapon. "I think we're doing to need a little help from the Eye of Thundera."

There were a few more details to work out, but everyone had finally agreed that this method would be the most useful. There would be a great deal of preparation to be done; marking how far out, and how far along the forest they would need to blast, which would be a tedious and mundane chore. They needed to see how deep they wanted to blast, and figure out a way to warn the living creatures that lived in the fields.

Cheetara said that she could handle that. It might drain her for a few days, a week even, but he could sense anything living in the immediate area, and could psychically ~nudge~ them from their burrows, to a safe area.

And finally, the method of blasting came under discussion. The Sword of Omens was suggested, but using it to sterilize the soil, harden it into rock, was going to be draining enough on Lion-O, who still was not quite used to using the powerful magic. Blasting the area might just be overdoing it.

"Cheetara's doing to be weak for days as it is," Tygra pointed out. "We don't need you out of commission too."

And so it was decided that Panthro's new toy, the ThunderTank, would be doing the job. Its claws could dig up the earth, remove the grasses from their roots, and someone at the guns could burn it off.

The Thunderkittens had wanted no part of the marking, as it required patience and a lot of measuring. "It's doing to be boring," Wilykit griped privately to her brother.

"Yeah," he agreed rather glumly, Then he sighed. "But remember all that stuff about wanting to be treated as equals we talked to Lion-O about? If we just volunteer to do the fun stuff..."

"Yeah, I know. I was thinking the same thing." Wilykit sighed. "Okay, let's tell Panthro we'll help mark the stupid lines."

He was surprised, but pleased at their offer of help, and accepted readily. "It's doing to be boring though," he warned them.

The twins exchanged a bit of a smirk. "We know, Panthro," Wilykat said. "We'll help anyways."

"Well good!" Panthro smiled, clapping them both on the back hard enough to stagger them. "Glad to have you. I was just headed out."

The twins followed him out.

By that afternoon, Panthro and the twins had gotten a good deal of the territory marked out. Pumyra and Tygra were working on the other border, and at this rate, they'd finish by nightfall.

"You know," Wilykit said. "Why don't we just dig out a trench along this border we've been marking all day, get some rock from Darkside..." She glanced over at Fire Rock Mountain. "Or even better, find a way to safely get some of that lava over here and fill it up?"

"Same reason we aren't using a wall," Panthro said, holding out the ribbon-ruler. "Here, take this."

The girl took it, and paced out a few yards. When she had the distance they'd been marking and stopped and painted the grass with a big blue X. "I guess you're right. but still, if it was deep, it would be hard to destroy."

"By anyone but Mumm-Ra," Wilykat said darkly.

"Oh yeah." Wilykit had not thought of that.

Come twilight, the two groups met each other along the border, and grinned when Panthro and Pumyra finished out their lines and stood up. "Well now," the puma woman said, looking pleased with herself. "I swear, I'm not used to this kind of excitement."

"This is nothing," Wilykat said with a grin. "Stuff happens all the time."

"You'll get used to it living here though," Wilykit put in with a grin.

At this, Pumyra actually frowned. "Well now, I'm not sure we'll be living here. I mean we do have a home." The thought of leaving the island made her feel a bit homesick.

"Well isn't it kind of boring and lonely way out on that island?" Wilykit asked. "I mean, it's just the three of you, and with that hovercraft we fixed and the air vehicles Panthro's been working on, you could go there whenever you wanted to."

"That's true..."

"Well it doesn't have to be decided today," Tygra said, smiling at the younger cat. "Come on, it's nearly dinnertime, and I am famished. Let's head inside."

The next day, Cheetara went out alone to the midway point of their project, sat down on the ground, and concentrated. As she quieted her mind, she began to feel the life forces of the creatures living in the soil and the grass. There were not too many, as the creatures were also wary of the unnatural forest, but enough that she would be most of the morning urging them out. She could exert her will over a large area at once, but she did have limits.

And so she began.

By midday, Lion-O got a call from Cheetara. her voice was weak, but she reported the land ready to be cleaned, and that she needed someone to come and collect her. Lion-O informed Panthro and went out to get the cheetah.

Panthro and Bengali took care of the land-clearing. It was a great deal faster than marking it out had been, and by evening, the powerful new ThunderTank had cleared a wide border of land of its grasses and topsoil.

When everyone had returned to the Lair, Lion-O addressed everyone present. They all gathered in the medbay, as Cheetara was lying down there and couldn't go anywhere for the time being, although she must be getting stronger in mind, she thought. It had not drained her nearly as much as she'd thought it would. She wouldn't be up to running any races for a couple of days, but other than that, she was all right.

"Well," Lion-O said. "We did a heck of a good job I think, and an even better job of working together." He beamed at the three visitors, and the Thunderkittens, who had shown that they did know how to teamwork when they tried.

"And now..." Lynx-O turned hi head towards Lion-O and smiled.

Lion-O nodded. "I think it should be done tonight, get it over with," he said. The young lord took a deep breath and drew his weapon. He was nervous about doing something so large with the Eye. He hoped that he could take it.

Lynx-o smiled. "Well let's go, then." He began feeling his way to the door.

"Right...let's go."

Part 19: Mumm-Ra

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