15

It was late afternoon on New Thundera, and though Pumyra had calmed down, she walked with her head down, exuding an air of sorrow that even Snarfer could feel as much as see. Lynx-O felt for her, but there was work to be done. "All right," he said. He had given her this time to sort things out, and held off from outlining his plan until now. "I have read in the books in the library, that an explosion will sometimes alter the dimensional barrier. I have read that in rare cases it will even open a permanent portal through time, or one that is open for much of the time in the same place. There is a place on Third Earth that has been there since its first cycle called the Water-grave. On First Earth, it was called the Bermuda Triangle; it's over one of the seas. On Thundera there is the Forlantrin on the other side of Felis. They were both caused by major explosions."

Snarfer caught up with the pair and rose on his tail. "Ooo, and Thundera...it was destroyed on the date of one of those alignments, right?"

Lynx-O nodded. "Yes, it was. But that was not enough to alter the time stream...or if it was, it was in a way we never saw. But..." And here Lynx-O thought. "If Cheetara could somehow create her own explosion...the next alignment on Plundaar takes place within four days of where she is at the moment. If she could somehow cause her own explosion on that day or soon thereafter...perhaps that added to Thundera's explosion on another alignment, would be enough. Mumm-Ra's spell was based on this event, I can only hope that this might reverse this effect. There is theory in many of the physics books I read."

"But..." Pumyra said, "...wouldn't that risk causing this kind of effect rather than fixing this one?"

Lynx-O shook his head., "There is of course that risk, but I am thinking that since Mumm-Ra's spell is based on this occurrence, that his spell is weaker than the time barrier, and therefore would be affected first." He paused for a moment. "It's the only way, Pumyra."

She nodded. "Yes. I know...what will happen then? Will we all be transported back to Third Earth as we are? Or will the whole thing just never have happened? And if that's the case, will we remember what happened?"

"I don't know, Pumyra." Lynx-O's face was grim. "I just don't know enough about this kind of thing."

"How do we tell Cheetara?"

"This I have thought of. We must go to Plundaar."

***

The next two days passed slowly on Plundaar for the Thunderian captives. Snarf had slowly started to recover, although he was in enough pain to make him quite miserable. Cheetara had recovered enough to pace her cell after rearranging the tatters of her uniform to at least provide some cover. They had been fed more or less enough of a grayish hot mush, and a couple of times given a bitter tasting green vegetable that looked like crunchy sticks. They ate it, however, as they were pretty hungry, and it was better than nothing.

Towards the middle of the second day, The two captives received a visitor; not Graydon, as he had brought the meals, eliciting a hateful glare from Cheetara, and leering back, but a pair of Mutant guards and an extremely small-statured vulture.

"What the hell do you want?" Cheetara growled.

The vulture ignored her, although the simian guard growled back at her to shut up. "Get the Snarf in my lab," the vulture said. "And Jackala wants the cheetah in the work yard."

"You got it, doc," said the large Reptilian, large at least for the smaller race the Mutants had become. Deciding to take care of the bigger threat first, they lunged for Cheetara, who cursed and dodged them. Even with her ankles chained, she was fast enough this time to evade them, and they both fell to the floor on top of each other. Apparently the Mutants were still incompetent, even now, Cheetara thought to herself.

The vulture, thinking quickly. shut the cell door, then retreated to hide behind the two angry guards as they stood. "You can't get out, bitch, so give up, hoo hoo!" the simian growled.

"Never! A ThunderCat never surrenders!"

The guards both laughed. "A ThunderCat is scum!" And they lunged again. They managed to get her under control and pinned to the wall while the vulture (at a distance) said to her, "I would cooperate with us if I were you. I will have this peculiar Snarf with me the entire time. If you wish to see him again alive, you will stop struggling."

With a low growl of frustration, Cheetara stopped fighting the guards.

"Good kitty," the simian grinned at her and stroked her mane as if she were a house cat. She snapped at him with her teeth, as they were pinning her arms, and he drew back just in time to avoid losing a finger. He smacked her. "Try that again, and I'll bash your head in, cheetah."

Cheetara did not answer, but neither did she fight as they dragged her out of the cell and outside into a large work yard. Part of it looked as if there was work set up only to give the prisoners work to do, but she also saw treadmills for generating power, and what might have been some kind of mine, not to mention a large, smelly bin of garbage that some Mutant prisoners were dumping trash cans into. She sighed as she was led to the treadmills and ordered to run. She thought about refusing, but also thought about Snarf, and saw that some of the guards carried billy clubs, and did not hesitate to use them on anyone who slacked. With a sigh, she stepped up and began to run, hindered by the damnable leg irons.

Inside, the vulture patiently waited for the guards to return, and only one was needed to haul the Snarf up by his tail, making him yelp in pain. He would live, but he still was hurt. "Put me down!" he hollered, even though it pained his sides to do so.

That was a mistake he did not repeat, as the simian shook him hard, making him cry out again, and said, "Shut up, furball, or you'll get worse!"

Snarf shut up.

He was taken to an almost blindingly white, large laboratory, and strapped onto a large table. The vulture, ignoring the Snarf's protests completely, set about doing tests, making sure at first that he was truly of the Snarf race. Blood tests, skin and fur samples, and a full medical examination were taken and tested out. "Well well. You are a Snarf all right." Just then, another Mutant came in and spoke briefly to him, then left. The vulture laughed. "Amazing. Time travel. That seemed to be the results of your friend's brain scan. I have always wanted to see how a Snarf worked, but unfortunately I have orders to keep you alive for now, so I will have to restrict my testing."

"Ohhh, Snaaaarf," he moaned, and closed his eyes.

Part 14

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