Another Fine Mess

On Muunilinst, Addicus, the big, anonymous bounty hunter and his lancer droids continued to destroy the Republic's turbolaser cannons, only now they had been joined by an army of rampaging Jackals as well, which carried their own deadly lances, and they were adding to the mayhem. It was beginning to look a bit bad for the Republic.

A clone in charge of the artillery known as Able-472 reported to Obi-Wan, "General Kenobi, our cannons are being destroyed." At the same time, Lion-O received a call over his wrist comlink from Panthro. "Lion-O! That beast Addicus is down here with some armored brute and a bunch of lancer droids and Jackals, and they're tearing into everyone in sight! I don't know how much longer Cheetara and I can handle them alone!"

Lion-O and Obi-Wan looked out at the scene through two pairs of binoculars. They could see the Animals and lancer droids tearing apart everything in sight, and then they sighted Addicus, and the big guy in old-fashioned armor. Obi-Wan frowned.

"You recognize that man dressed in armor, Obi-Wan?" asked Lion-O.

"Yes, I do," said Obi-Wan grimly. "His name is Durge. He's a bounty hunter of the seemingly invincible Gen'Dai species. He was in a long hibernation before now, but it appears that Count Dooku thought he'd be a useful commander for the droid army, and revived him. Rumor has it he's about two thousand years old, more than twice as old as Master Yoda. Needless to say, he's bad news."

"Well, we've got to do something about this, before Panthro, Cheetara, and all our forces out there are wiped out," said Lion-O, "What do you recommend?"

Obi-Wan looked out at the carnage once more and asked, "Have you ever ridden anything as fast as a speeder bike before, Lion-O?"

Lion-O smirked for a second. "As a matter of fact, Tygra and I used to race each other a few times in the ThunderTank's ThunderPods, and they're pretty fast."

"Good," said Obi-Wan. He turned to Able-472 and ordered him to "Mount up."

"Yes sir," said Able.

The lancer droids and their new Jackal backups destroyed a few more AT-TE tanks. They were about to have another go at the ThunderTank when suddenly other speeder bikes appeared seemingly out of nowhere and skewered the droids right where they sat. The same fate happened to some of the racing Jackals with spears. Durge and Addicus turned and saw that they were now being counterattacked by lancers from the opposing army. Somebody on the Republic's side took out a Hailfire droid with his lance. It was Obi-Wan, dressed in clone armor over his Jedi clothes. The Jedi and his friend, Lion-O, were riding at the front of a clone lancer unit called the Lancer Battalion, followed closely by a small army of clones on speeder bikes wielding lances of their own, and they were supplemented by a team of Roadrunners racing on foot beside them with lances and spears as well.

Durge and Addicus gestured for the lancer droids and Jackals to engage the Lancer Battalion in full frontal joust, with both sides racing at each other head-on, their lances pointing directly ahead so as to skewer their foes. Addicus growled as he almost reached the enemy army, and Lion-O roared very Cat-like when he reached the same point.

It was chaos when the two sides met. Clone and droid alike was impaled painfully and killed, or launched off their bikes and thrown aside. Roadrunners and Jackals alike were speared by each other's lances and fell to the ground, some badly hurt, some dead. It went on for not too long, with both sides being almost completely decimated by the time it was over.

Obi-Wan and Lion-O, however, survived, but so did Addicus and Durge, and as the others finished killing each other off, the two commanders on either side of the conflict engaged in personal combat. Cheetara ran to help heal some of the injured Roadrunners and clones while this battle went on.

Durge and Obi-Wan charged each other, and aimed their lances directly at each other's arms, while Lion-O and Addicus followed suit. Durge's lance broke Obi-Wan's lance, and also caused him to lose his helmet, but Obi-Wan himself was unfazed, except for a small bruise below his lower lip. Lion-O lost his own lance to Addicus as well, who merely caught it with one of his opposable feet, a useful talent for a Monkey, and yanked it out of Lion-O's hand.

So Obi-Wan and Lion-O brandished a lightsaber and the Sword of Omens, respectively, and with a swipe of the lightsaber and a shout of "HO!" from Lion-O, the enemy bikes were destroyed. Despite the explosion, Durge emerged from it completely unharmed, while Addicus demonstrated his natural agility by somersaulting off his own bike before it exploded. Obi-Wan and Lion-O attempted to slay the two beasts, but in a display of speed, strength, and coordination, the bounty hunter and the big Ape caught the speeder bikes with their hands by the steering vanes and flipped the Jedi and Cat off. But Lion-O and Obi-Wan still managed to land on their feet. Durge and Addicus proceeded to charge their foes, using the bikes as clubs, but the lightsaber and the Sword of Omens sliced them to pieces, and Obi-Wan stabbed Durge through the chest, while Lion-O aimed a strike at Addicus' chest.

Due to being a Gen'Dai with no central nervous system, however, Durge easily resisted the intended affect of the stabbing, and laughed at Obi-Wan menacingly. Then he proceeded to beat the Jedi with his fists, making him lose his grip on his lightsaber. As for Lion-O's strike, again with amazing speed, Addicus reached out with his foot and grabbed Lion-O's wrist, twisting it and making him drop his Sword, subsequently pounding Lion-O over the head with his huge paws. The two heroes couldn't retaliate at first, and were bodily lifted off their feet by a solid punch to the gut and fell on their rears on the ground. Addicus then moved in, getting ready to crush Lion-O, something he had been longing to do, and Lion-O was still too dazed from all the hitting to fight back. But then, Cheetara raced in at top speed and pounded Addicus in the face with her stick, a trick she had used on him once before on Avista when he tried to kill Tygra.

"Thanks, Cheetara," said Lion-O, "Glad you weren't too busy to help."

"Sometimes I think saving each other's lives is the only sort of relationship any of us ThunderCats have," said Cheetara.

Lion-O frowned. "Yeah, you and Tygra should know that more than any of us."

Cheetara looked hurt, not thrilled that Lion-O still didn't speak to her nearly as much as he did to the other ThunderCats.

"Enough about personal feelings!" shouted Panthro from the ThunderTank, "That brute still isn't defeated, and the battle isn't yet won!"

He was right. Though Addicus was down for the count, Durge was still active, and he started to attack Obi-Wan and Lion-O with a gatling gauntlet on his arm. By now, though, Obi-Wan was recovered, and used a Force shield to block all the shots coming their way. Seeing this wasn't working, Durge fired a wrist-mounted flame projector at them next. Obi-Wan used the Force to block this next. When Durge allowed a lull in its stream of fire, Obi-Wan used the Force to crush the projector. Durge pulled a flail on a chain from his belt and brought it back to swing at the Jedi, but Obi-Wan used the Force to get his lightsaber back, and also helped Lion-O get back the Sword of Omens, and they both chopped through the flail's chain as it swung forward. Durge swiftly drew two hand-held blasters, but Obi-Wan quickly disarmed him of them. Finally, Durge resorted to defending himself with energy shields in his gauntlets, but the strikes Obi-Wan and Lion-O made were too fast to easily counter-attack, especially when facing multiple opponents at once. Panthro finally joined the battle, using his nunchucks to grasp Durge from behind in a chokehold. The choking didn't affect Durge, but the distraction was enough that Lion-O and Obi-Wan could press their advantage.

Finally, when Durge made the mistake of lifting his right arm a little, Kenobi sliced through it, cutting it off, and then Lion-O bisected the bounty hunter through the waist. The pieces of the Gen'Dai warrior fell to the ground, seemingly defeated.

Obi-Wan looked down on Durge and asked Lion-O, "Have you ever killed anyone before in your life, Lion-O?"

"Well," said Lion-O, "I did kill some of Mumm-Ra's Lizards back on Third Earth when it was truly necessary, but I never enjoyed it. I prefer to let the enemy live if I can, especially if they don't have to be the enemy of the Cats."

Obi-Wan gave a small, wan smile. "Then I guess we have something in common, you and I. We'll fight when we have to, but we don't take professional or personal pleasure in it."

"I guess you could say that, Obi-Wan," said Lion-O.

Just then, they got a call from Fordo over Obi-Wan's comlink. "General Kenobi," he said, "We are in position."

Obi-Wan answered, "I'm on my way."

Lion-O turned to Panthro and Cheetara. "You two stay here and clean up any further messes there may be around here. Obi-Wan and I are going after this San Hill character."

"Any messes?" said Panthro, "Like what?" He sounded like he was taking Lion-O literally. He was looking distastefully at Durge's remains.

"I don't mean that kind of mess, Panthro," said Lion-O, "I mean watch out for any further attacks or skirmishes between Republic and Confederate forces, and help the Republic to win it, if you can."

"Oh," said Panthro, sounding relieved, "That sounds better."

Lion-O and Obi-Wan retrieved a speeder bike that was still in one piece and rode it towards Hill's banking building as fast as possible. Panthro and Cheetara got back into the ThunderTank and rode off to look for more skirmishes that needed assistance.

What nobody noticed as they left was that behind them, the chopped up remains of Durge were slowly starting to rejoin and heal themselves…

Lion-O and Obi-Wan rode their speeder bike through the city streets until they came to the command tower where the Muunilinst 10 awaited them. Obi-Wan made the vehicle take them straight up the side of the building, and after they were more than halfway up, Obi-Wan grabbed Lion-O by the waist and leapt out of his seat, carrying them to the roof of the building, where San Hill, the ARC troopers, and the Ravens were waiting.

As soon as they landed, Fordo said, "We are set, General."

"Very well," said Obi-Wan, putting his hand on Fordo's armored shoulder. "Let's end this battle, Captain."

Inside, San Hill and his fellow Muun bankers were watching the (from their perspective) sad state of the battle, fearing the worst. An explosion suddenly tore open the ceiling of the room, and ARC troopers came rappelling down on cables, firing at the battle droid and Jackal security forces. Hill and the Muuns ran away from the holographic table where they had been watching the progress of the battle. Soon enough, all the battle droids were dismantled, and all the Jackals dead or captured. Three droidekas suddenly rolled in and opened fire, but Obi-Wan and Lion-O leapt in next, and took down the droidekas one by one. After the last of the security had been taken care of, Obi-Wan heard Fordo say, "General."

He turned. The ARC Captain had just grabbed San Hill. Of course, like the Council members of the Separatist Council usually were, he was quite cowardly. "Mercy, I beg you," he whimpered, "I am merely a banker!"

"That is entirely up to you," replied Obi-Wan, "And your unconditional surrender."

"Well," said Lion-O, "These Separatist leaders surely aren't known for their immense amount of bravery. I imagine Dobo and his fellow Dogs would despise people like this one. Dogs believe in loyalty and courage in battle."

"You'll get used to it," said Obi-Wan, "Many Separatists tend to be rather craven at heart, when they don't have a significant advantage. It's one of the things that separates us from them."

Before Lion-O could reply, they heard a loud sound, like a jetpack, coming from outside. Kenobi ignited his lightsaber, and Lion-O drew the Sword of Omens. At that moment, a regenerated Durge flew into the room, crashing through a glass window.

"What?" said Lion-O, disbelieving, "How did he survive being cut in two?"

All the clone troopers and Birds opened fire on Durge at once, pushing him back.

"I forgot to tell you," said Obi-Wan, "Gen'Dai are creatures that can regenerate their bodies and withstand massive amounts of punishment before they can be taken down. Even seemingly fatal injuries do not very often kill a Gen'Dai. It's one of the reasons Durge has lived for so long. He's almost indestructible."

"There must be a way he can be defeated," said Lion-O.

The clone and Bird blaster fire shot down Durge, destroying his jetpack and making him fall to the floor. The troops continued to fire, and a Ravenman with a rocket launcher launched a small rocket at Durge's position. There was a small explosion, and all was quiet again.

"Control room secure, General," said Fordo.

Obi-Wan disagreed. "One can never be too sure, Captain," he replied.

Some of the Republic soldiers cautiously approached the smoke. But not cautiously enough. Suddenly, a massive, fleshy arm that seemed to be made of pure muscle tendons shot out from the smoke, and knocked aside many of the troops. Durge, still alive and well, leapt out of the crater, seeming to be all tendons, entrails, and other forms of flesh from under a skinned body, most of his armor gone, although he still wore his helmet.

Lion-O was briefly distracted by this gruesome body the Gen'Dai had, and Durge took advantage of the moment, attempting to knock him down with one arm. But Obi-Wan leapt to the rescue and cut off part of the arm. Durge regenerated rapidly, and swiped at Obi-Wan and Lion-O violently, but they dodged every attack. One of Durge's attacks smashed the holographic table, causing the hologram to go out.

Clones standing high above fired grappling hooks at Durge and slid down them, blasting all the way, hoping to restrain him while they blasted him. Some of the Ravens took to the air and encircled Durge, getting ready to shock him with their spears. Unfortunately, Durge wasn't affected by the blaster bolts, and he knew how to deal with the clones and the Birds. He used his immense strength to rip the lines from the walls, toppling the clones, and before they could hit the floor, he swung his ugly body around, throwing the clones into the Ravens, knocking them out of the air.

Then Durge really did the outrageous. He charged Kenobi, went over him, and used his body's tentacles to absorb Obi-Wan into his body. The Jedi dropped his lightsaber just before being locked within.

Fordo was beginning to get desperate. He fired a wire at Durge's helmeted head and pumped electricity through it, hoping to electrocute and fry the bounty hunter. But after a few seconds, this only enraged the mad creature, who somehow deflected the electricity back at Fordo, stunning the ARC Captain. Durge knock a few more troops and Birds out of his way and moved in for the kill.

But by this time, Lion-O had had enough. He thought that if anything could defeat a monster like this, it would be the Eye of Thundera. He raised the Sword of Omens and yelled, "ThunderCats, HO!" A red fire shot out from the War Stone and enveloped Durge, stopping the surprised bounty hunter, who hadn't been expecting this. Durge cried out in pain at the burning effects of the mystical Sword. Then, at the same time, Durge's interior began to bloat outwards, making him even more massive and hideous than he already was. The Gen'Dai made a comical but pathetic groan.

Lion-O raised the Gauntlet of Omens, and he ordered the troopers and the birds to retreat to the back of the room, which they did, even Fordo. The Spirit Stone raised its powerful shield to protect Lion-O and the rest of the room, as Durge became even more bloated to a massive size, until he finally exploded outward! His sizzling remains were scattered all over the inner section of the room, and Obi-Wan Kenobi was once again standing free, breathing hard and covered with slime.

Lion-O ran toward him. "Are you all right, Obi-Wan?" he asked, concerned.

"Don't worry, Lion-O," Obi-Wan responded, "I'm fine. Seems like I've created quite a mess now, haven't I?" he said with dry humor.

"Yes sir," agreed Fordo.

"I bear some responsibility for it, too," said Lion-O, "I think the War Stone and Spirit Stone contributed to taking down that brute."

"Well, in that case, I thank you for your assist," said Obi-Wan, smiling.

"You're welcome," said Lion-O.

Hill was hiding under a table, shivering. The Jedi, the Cat, and the ARCs soon tracked him down, and Obi-Wan said, "Now where were we? Ah, yes. I believe you were surrendering."

Hill pounded the floor with his fist once in frustration. But there was nothing that could be done about it. He and the other Muuns gave themselves up, and they and the surviving Jackals were led away as prisoners.

Obi-Wan picked up the empty helmet of the supposedly late Durge. He and Lion-O gazed at it. They hoped that Durge would never bother them again, but as Obi-Wan had told Fordo, one could never be too sure…

In the meantime, the space battle above Muunilinst was going in favor of the Republic, too. Many V-19 Torrents had been lost in combat, but countless more droid starfighters and Geonosian fighters had been destroyed, as well.

Commanders Anakin Skywalker and Tygra were proving themselves to be excellent at combat, and the clone pilots were becoming quite impressed. The two show-offs had been fleeing from droid fighters, only to make a clever move to end up behind the fighters, and blew them away before they knew what hit them.

Tygra was piloting his ship, the Soaring Ocelot, into the indentations and trenches of one of the gun platforms, chasing two Geonosian fighters as he did so. The fighters were surprisingly good for droid pilots, keeping well ahead of Tygra and turning every corner sharply, staying in the game for some time. But Tygra wouldn't let them go. He continued to give chase, pursuing them all throughout the platform's exterior. The ships split apart from each other at the end, but Tygra took another route and managed to destroy one of them along with another fighter. The other fighter was hot on his tail with another fighter, but he hit the brakes and they flew right by. Then he blasted them out of the sky, too.

"That's pretty good flying, Tygra," complimented Anakin, "Where did you learn all those moves?"

"Actually, I didn't exactly learn them," said Tygra, "Flying just feels natural to me. It's like my kind has always been flying."

Anakin grinned. "I imagine you're right," he said.

Tygra grinned back, even though they couldn't see each other's faces.

A clone pilot dubbed Gold Leader fired at, and destroyed, an enemy starfighter, but then, another enemy fighter appeared seemingly out of nowhere and blasted him.

"We lost Gold Leader!" reported Gold Two, as many more enemy ships started to join the space assault.

"Commander, enemy reinforcements coming in, .35!" Gold Two said to Anakin.

"Clear out, Gold Two, I'm coming in!" replied Anakin from his own fighter, the Azure Angel. "R4, switch all power to the forward shields!"

R4-P22 beeped in the affirmative.

Anakin took on the new force of fighters face-on and blasted many of them to smithereens. He allowed himself a smile as he took them down. Then three Geonosian fighters started to tail him. He flew around, evading their every shot, and eventually flying close to another gun platform, egging on the droid pilots. They continued to fire at him, always missing and doing significant damage to the platform, until he did a trick similar to Tygra's. He flew upwards and behind the three enemy fighters and destroyed them from behind before they could react.

He felt proud of himself, but as he flew back out into the open, a whole host of droid fighters were suddenly on his tail. R4 warned him of this.

"I know, I know!" said Anakin.

"I have an idea, Anakin," said Tygra, "If the V-19s can shoot all their missiles across the bow of one of the attack cruisers, and you can fly past the bow at just the right time, I'll bet they'll take out quite a lot of those fighters."

"Good idea, Tygra," said Anakin, "I was considering that myself." He contacted one of the clone pilots. "Red Leader, fire all your missiles across the bough of cruiser 8!"

Red Leader was baffled initially. "But commander," he said, "there's nothing out there. No targets."

The fighters behind Anakin were getting ready to fire.

"Do it now, trooper!" insisted Anakin.

Red Leader and his squadron obeyed, firing their missiles in the direction Anakin wanted them to.

R4 sounded alarmed. Anakin, though, knew what he was doing. He timed his flight just right, flying past the bough of the cruiser, and as the Geonosian fighters followed, so many of them were wiped out by the V-19s' missiles, destroying well over half of the ships following Anakin.

Some of the missiles followed Anakin, however, but Anakin was ready for this, too. He flew the Azure Angel towards the hangar bay of one of the gun platforms, out of which were flying more enemy reinforcements. He destroyed a few of the ships with his lasers, and a bunch more were destroyed by the pursuing missiles. The remaining missiles followed Anakin as he flew into the hangar bay, and he flew through it with perfect skill, precision, and coordination. The missiles were not so precise, however, and some exploded within the hangar, destroying parked fighters and battle droids. Finally, he flew back out the other end of the hangar, but by this time, the last of the missiles had hit vital parts of the platform, causing it to go up in flames.

As he flew out, he noticed that Tygra and the clone pilots were doing quite a number on the other gun platforms. Tygra had managed to destroy a gun platform by having Green Squadron shoot their missiles directly behind the Soaring Ocelot, baffling the troopers even more than Anakin's previous order, because clone troopers weren't supposed to kill or harm allies of the Republic. But Tygra had insisted that he would be all right, and finally, the clones obeyed. He led the missiles right into the interior of a gun platform, and flew with such grace that every clumsy missile hit a vital piece of the ship. He flew until he had reached the platform's main reactor, and some of the missiles destroyed it, and he flew out with amazing speed. The gun platform was vaporized behind him.

"Impressive," said Anakin, "Most impressive."

"Thanks a lot, Anakin," Tygra replied.

Blue Leader gave a report to the two of them. "Commander Skywalker, Commander Tygra, almost all the gun platforms have been destroyed, and only – wait! What's that-?"

One of his men had been shot by a fighter that was some distance from the battle. Then he was destroyed a moment later before he could finish what he was saying. Anakin and Tygra looked and saw all the rest of Blue Squadron's ships get destroyed.

"Commander!" reported Green Leader, "We've just lost Blue Squadron! A rogue fighter has-"

"I see him!" said Anakin. "Tygra, Green Leader, mop up the rest of the fighters as planned. This one's mine."

"You sure about that?" said Tygra, "I'm sure I can help."

"I'm sure, Tygra," said Anakin, "I sense something about this pilot that might make me the one most fit to fight him."

"All right," said Tygra, "But you know that you have to concentrate on the battle first. I'm sure Obi-Wan impressed that on you."

"I know, I know," said Anakin impatiently, "But I can handle this. And as long as you direct the forces well, the battle up here is already won. Now go."

Tygra shrugged and went back to take care of the remains of the Separatist fleet with Green Leader. Anakin, meanwhile, narrowed his eyes at the newcomer as he concentrated on defeating his new foe by whatever means necessary.

Anakin and the mystery pilot flew head-to-head, firing at each other simultaneously. They made a couple of passes at each other, and soon, Anakin managed to land a glancing shot on his opponent.

"Gotcha!" he said, grinning.

But the enemy fighter was tougher than it looked, and it plunged into pursuit, landing a glancing shot of its own on the Azure Angel. Anakin looked behind him. R4 warbled nervously. He whirled around and soon got behind his foe instead, and already he was using his targeting computer to lock on to his target. When he got a lock, he said, "I have you now!"

But as he fired, the fighter put on a burst of speed and just barely outflew the shot. Anakin was quite surprised.

"Increase power to the thrusters, R4," Anakin ordered his droid, pushing a few buttons. "This is no droid pilot!"

And so the pursuit continued, with the Geonosian ship evading all of Anakin's attempts to shoot it down. Soon enough, the ship plunged into the atmosphere of Muunilinst, and sure enough, Anakin followed.

"Come on!" Anakin growled as he struggled to get a lock again.

The mystery ship dive-bombed toward the streets of Harnaidan, flying nimbly through the roads and gaps between the buildings. Anakin occasionally attempted to shoot the ship down, but he kept failing, his shots obliterating banking skyscrapers instead. But still he pressed on, and so did his foe.

Not far away, Obi-Wan, who was all cleaned up after his ordeal with Durge, Lion-O, and some clone troopers and Birds observed the battle from a distance again. Cheetara and Panthro were still helping the other clone forces root out the last pockets of Separatist resistance, and were now being helped by another Jedi General, a wolf-man-like alien named Voolvif Monn. They then heard a loud sound nearby, like a starfighter.

"What was that?" asked Lion-O.

"I don't know, Commander," said a clone lieutenant.

Then the mystery ship suddenly breezed past them loudly. Lion-O was surprised when it blasted its laser cannons right near his feet, and he had to hop out of the way, fast.

"That's not one of ours," said Obi-Wan.

"No, General," agreed the lieutenant.

"Whoever it was," said Lion-O, "they must really dislike me. Those laser blasts were aimed almost directly at me!"

"I wish we knew who was in it," said Obi-Wan.

"Yes, General," said the lieutenant.

"Maybe the Eye of Thundera's Sight Beyond Sight can tell us," suggested Lion-O.

"Good idea, Lion-O," said Obi-Wan.

And then, the Azure Angel whisked by very fast.

"That was Anakin!" announced Obi-Wan.

"Yes, General," said the lieutenant, who was beginning to sound like a parrot.

"Anakin!" Obi-Wan said into his wrist comlink.

"It's under control, Master," Anakin tried to assure him.

The enemy ship fired at Lion-O again, while Anakin once again tried to blast the fighter.

"You're supposed to be in space leading our forces," said Obi-Wan sternly.

The ships came around yet again.

"Tygra is looking after that, Master," said Anakin. "So don't worry; it's under control!"

"Under control?" said Obi-Wan skeptically, "I don't think so. Your place is with your squadrons, young one, not-" The ships whisked past them once more, making a lot of noise. Lion-O had to dodge one more blast. The second the noise had stopped, Obi-Wan continued, "-not chasing one ship through the city streets!"

Anakin decided to share his feelings regarding the pilot of that mystery fighter. "Master, this is no droid pilot, and the Force is with him. I can't let him get away!"

Lion-O, finally getting a break from the mystery pilot's laser cannons, looked into the Sword of Omens and said, "Sword of Omens, give me Sight Beyond Sight!"

The War Stone gave him an image of the enemy ship, and then showed him its interior, as well as the two women seated there. He didn't recognize one of them, but the other was all too familiar.

Gasping, he said, "Pumyra! Pumyra is in that ship!"

"Pumyra?" asked Obi-Wan, "That Cat on Mumm-Ra's side who wants revenge on you for something?"

"Yes," said Lion-O, "She thinks I abandoned her and our people after the ThunderCats and I snuck out of the ruins of Thundera after its destruction, and Mumm-Ra has convinced her that I'm more responsible for betraying her than he or his Lizard army are."

"Oh," said Obi-Wan, "Did you betray her?"

"No, of course not!" said Lion-O, "Her perceived 'betrayal' is in her imagination, but I can't convince her otherwise. She won't rest until I'm done for, and possibly the other ThunderCats, too."

"Well, if Pumyra is aboard that ship," surmised Obi-Wan, "then the other occupant can't be up to any good, either." They noticed that both ships were heading out of the atmosphere, back into space. Obi-Wan contacted Anakin again.

"Anakin," he said, attempting to reason with him, "I'm also sensing something strange. But Lion-O's Sword has shown him that Pumyra is one of the occupants of that ship, and she's been after Lion-O for some time, and the pilot can't be up to any good, either. So you must let that ship go; it's baiting you, and it might be baiting Lion-O, too."

Anakin was probably listening, but evidently he had already made up his mind. R4 told him something.

"Jumping into hyperspace? You have his coordinates? Then plug them in! He's not losing us!"

Obi-Wan tried once more. "Anakin-"

"Master, the battle up here is more than won," interrupted Anakin. "I can handle this."

Obi-Wan was losing patience with his Padawan. "Do not follow that ship," he insisted, "Anakin, do you hear me? Do not follow that ship! That is an order! Anakin!"

Anakin was glaring at nothing in particular where he sat. Deciding he would have to be a little rude in order to get away with what he was doing, he said, "Sorry, sir. Your signal is breaking up." Then he pushed a button, cutting off the connection. Obi-Wan managed to get as far as saying, "Padawan, if you-!" before he lost Anakin.

The ship carrying Asajj Ventress and Pumyra took off into hyperspace, and Anakin followed close behind it.

Obi-Wan glared at the spot in the sky where the ships were just a moment ago. He then turned to a clone sergeant and asked, "You have the coordinates?"

"Yes, General," said the clone.

"Take a squad and follow him!" ordered Obi-Wan.

"I'm going, too," said Lion-O.

"But Lion-O," said Obi-Wan, "that ship is baiting you too, if you say that Pumyra's on board."

"I know it's baiting me, Obi-Wan," replied Lion-O, "But I still need to follow him. Anakin may not be able to take on both of them together, even with troops backing him up, and he isn't as experienced with facing a Cat as he is with facing a Jedi or a Sith. Besides, the matter between Pumyra and I is personal, and I don't know what will happen if Anakin gets in the way of that. Pumyra could give us worse reprisals in the future, or worse, Mumm-Ra could do so."

Obi-Wan though about it for a moment. "All right," he said, "But be very careful. And make sure that both of you make it back here alive. I don't know what I'd do without you as an ally, or Anakin as an apprentice, even if he is willful."

"I'll be careful," promised Lion-O.

"May the Force be with you," Obi-Wan said in temporary goodbye.

Lion-O, the troops, and their sergeant got on board a CR-20 troop carrier and took off after Anakin, Ventress and Pumyra into the depths of space.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," mused Obi-Wan Kenobi.

A/N: The next part of this chronology will be in chapter 5 of this same fan fiction, but it will temporarily leave the story of Anakin, Obi-Wan, Ventress, and the Cats. The first part of the next chapter will be about how Kit Fisto and some Fishmen save Dac (Mon Calamari) from the Quarren Isolation League, and the second part will be about the skirmish on Ilum involving Luminara, Barriss, Yoda, Anet, Padmé, and a few others. I am not going to include the crazy Battle of Dantooine, in which Mace Windu single-handedly decimates a droid army with ludicrous attack moves, especially since I really don't know how I would write such a mini-story.

Anakin, Obi-Wan, and company will probably return in chapter 6.