8
Everyone watched as Panthro, a huge, muscled ThunderCat, who had plenty of scars from days at war from when he was younger, and some that were possibly a little more recent than that, worked on his Thunder Tank, which seemed to be malfunctioning. His fur was a light shade of charcoal, and his eyes were both red, but one was cloudy with blindness from a scar that went over his eye.
"I didn't think he'd be so… big." Leanne said when she saw him, "I thought he'd be, y'know, smaller." Panthro yanked open the covering for the tank's engine with ease, making WilyKat and WilyKit gape at him.
"I thought he'd be less spiky." Cheetara said, talking about the red vest he wore with grey spikes coming out of it. He also wore a pair of matching red, spiky gloves. Tygra saw the slightly awed expression on Lion-O's face and smirked. He nudged him with his elbow.
"Go on, Lord of the ThunderCats," He said, "See if your loyal subject needs help fixing his tank. That is, unless you're scared."
"Tygra!" Leanne said in an admonishing tone. Lion-O, not going to turn down Tygra's challenge, stepped closer to the tank where Panthro was working, his back facing Lion-O.
"Hey, Panthro." He greeted, trying to sound friendly.
"Go away." Panthro said, "Can't you see I'm busy?" Lion-O's smile fell into a frown.
"Oh, come on!" Lion-O said, "You're really just going to ignore us forever? What are you so grumpy about anyway?"
"You're standing on my samouflange." Panthro said. Lion-O jumped, looking down at where his feet were and lifting them up.
"Uh… sorry." He said, even though he wasn't sure where the samouflange was, or even what it was. He cleared his throat, "Look, maybe I can help. I've dabbled in a little tech myself, and so has Leanne."
"Hi." Leanne waved at him, but he didn't bother turning around to look at her. Instead, he stood up and looked down at Lion-O.
"The Thunder Tank is out of Thundrelium." He said, "Now I've got to risk my hide to get more at the Cloud Peak mine!" He pointed to a far-off mountain in the distance. It was incredibly tall, but instead of there being a top to the mountain, it looked as though it had been cut off, leaving a flat surface on the top.
"If you're going after Thundrelium," Lion-O said, "We're coming with you." Panthro looked at him out of the corner of his good eye.
"Let me put this as respectfully as I can… No."
"I am the king now, general." Lion-O said, putting emphasis on Panthro's status. Panthro jumped down from the tank, towering over Lion-O.
"Fine. Slow me down or get in my way, and you're on your own." Panthro turned to the others, "Any questions?"
Leanne raised her hand up halfway as if she was in a classroom, "What's a samouflange?" Panthro rolled his eyes at her.
"And you come from a world of technology." He scoffed, Leanne scowled at him, planting her hands on her hips.
"What the heck is that supposed to mean?" She asked him testily, "Not everyone can be a tech genius!" Panthro ignored her as he walked away. Leanne looked over at Tygra, "He hates me even more than you do, and that's saying something!"
"Something we can agree on." Tygra said, crossing his arms across his chest. Lion-O had WilyKat, WilyKit, and Snarf wait at the tank for them to get back, promising that they'd be back before dark.
"If we don't all die first…" Panthro muttered under his breath. As they walked through the woods to the mountain, Panthro started making a conversation. "You sure have a motley crew on your hands, kid. It's a miracle you survived this long without any adult supervision."
"Well, we've been doing just fine under my command." Lion-O said, a little peeved that Panthro doubted his leadership because of his age.
"If you want to stay alive, you're gonna have to listen to me." Panthro said.
"Lion-O is the king, Panthro." Leanne said in his defense, "And he's a pretty darn good leader." Lion-O smiled gratefully at her, and she smiled back.
Panthro laughed, "Could have fooled me. Your father, now he was a leader."
"The king fought to his last breath trying to save Thundera." Cheetara said, "In the end, Grune's betrayal was too much to overcome."
"Grune… We've been inseparable ever since that first day we met on the battlefield." Panthro said, there was something in his voice that made Leanne look up at him. A melancholic tone that was tinged with the tiniest bit of anger. If they were inseparable, she thought, then when he betrayed Thundera, Grune betrayed their friendship. Feeling a little bit of pity for the man, Leanne reached out to him. Her fingers barely brushed his fur, before her eyes became filled with a vision.
It was a battlefield, and a huge one. It was at Thundera's walls before the city had fallen. The lizards were attacking them, and they were even with the cats at the moment. She could see the bodies of the dead soldiers all around the place, victims of the lizards' flaming catapults. She saw two soldiers carrying a heavy boulder to one of their catapults, ready to fire it, but were blasted back by one of the lizards' and they fell to the ground, their bodies slightly burnt. She saw someone, a much younger Grune, whose brown mane of hair was much smaller than it was now, and he had both of his saber teeth.
"Finally," A voice said, Leanne tried to turn her head to see who it was, but found she couldn't, "Another cat who pulls his weight around here." With a start, Leanne realized she was seeing this memory from Panthro's point of view. This was his memory of the day he first met Grune on the battlefield. Grune tossed the boulder to him, and he easily caught it, "Name's Panthro."
"Grune." He replied, getting the catapult ready, "I don't know about you, but grunt work wasn't what I had in mind when I enlisted!"
"You've just got to prove yourself." Panthro said, loading the boulder onto the catapult, "Rise through the ranks."
"I don't have the patience for that." Grune said, his eyes gleaming as he looked at something. He released the catapult, and the boulder went flying into Thundera's own wall, right where a group of lizards had been battling King Claudus. The wall fell, taking the lizards with it, but Claudus remained, perfectly fine. He looked down at the two soldiers who had helped him, and they looked back. Grune shouldered his weapon, a round, spiked bludgeoner, and Panthro gave him a thumbs-up.
Now, Panthro was in the palace, and Leanne could see one of the clerics pinning a special medal to his chest. She wasn't sure what it was exactly, but she knew it was a reward for his and Grune's bravery in the battle. She listened was the crowd applauded them for their efforts. They looked up at where the king sat on his throne, looking down at them.
"Look at us, Panthro." Grune said quietly to him, "Soon, we'll run this entire kingdom."
Panthro chuckled, "You plan on becoming a lion?"
Grune chuckled as well, "No, I plan on becoming king."
Now, Panthro was at a battlefield, but it wasn't Thundera specifically. It might have been a little ways away from it, but in the distance, she could just barely make out the walls of the castle. She watched through his eyes as Panthro took down a lizard with his sword, and when a second one came up, they smashed the blade in half, and he dropped the sword. He pulled out his red-and-blue nun-chucks and started taking out lizards with ease. He and Grune came back to back as they fought.
"If you want to make it to General," Grune said to him, "You'll have to do better than that!"
"I'm eleven lizards ahead of you, captain!" Panthro laughed out. Grune swung his bludgeoner, and took out two lizards with his strike. He laughed in victory.
"Make that nine!" He said. Leanne watched as Panthro and Grune shared a friendly competition on the battlefield. Is that how it always was for them? Were they just friendly rivals in the heat of battle? They must have been very close, Leanne mused.
Now, his memory skipped ahead a few years, to when Panthro and Grune looked the way they did now, war scars and missing tooth and all, and Leanne saw two very familiar faces. It was a very young Lion-O and Tygra. They both had wooden swords and were fighting one another. Leanne would have cooed in adoration at Lion-O's adorable child-self if she could. He and Tygra were going at it as if they were in a real fight.
"Don't hold back, Tygra!" Grune called to him, "You're stronger, faster! Use your advantages!" Tygra did as Grune said, and jumped up high, and brought his sword down on Lion-O. He fell back and dropped his wooden sword, and when he pushed himself up, Tygra pointed the end of his wooden sword at him, showing that he had won. "Excellent. Now continue your training, and remember! What you cannot earn can always be taken!" Tygra looked admirably at Grune as Lion-O stood up. They both looked up at King Claudus as he came to the two of them.
"My two finest warriors," He greeted, they both stood up straight in his presence, neither of them ones to disrespect the king (At the moment, anyways). "I know what you're waiting to hear. I've chosen Lynx-O to be the general of the army." Both Panthro and Grune's jaws dropped.
"Lynx-O has less experience than either of us!" Grune said through gritted teeth.
"That's why I'm keeping you together for a much more important task." Claudus said as he pulled out a scroll that depicted a large group of cats worshiping a book that had a pillar of light shooting out of it. "The Book of Omens, I believe, is more than a legend. And if anyone can find it, it's you two. I hope you understand." Grune growled angrily in his throat, but he said nothing. Panthro stepped forward and bowed to the king.
"Our role is not to question your highness." He said.
Leanne pulled her hand back with a start, and looked up at Panthro with wide eyes. He looked down at her when he felt her touch on his arm, and quirked an eyebrow curiously at her expression.
"What's the matter with you?" He asked, "Haven't you ever seen a cat before?"
"Um…" Leanne wasn't quite sure if she should tell him that she saw his memories in that single second that she touched him. Panthro narrowed his eyes at her when she didn't come up with an immediate answer, "I…"
Panthro turned away, walking ahead, ignoring her again. Leanne looked around at the others, who looked at her curiously.
"What?" She asked them, they didn't reply.
Panthro used a special scope to check out the entrance of the mine, seeing two armed lizards guarding it. Beside him was Lion-O and Leanne, and behind them was Tygra and Cheetara.
"That's the access tunnel we need to get to." He put down the scope and turned to the others, "Doesn't look too heavily guarded."
"I say we take them now." Lion-O said.
"We'll wait for darkness." Panthro said, he and the others started to crawl away into a hiding place to wait. Lion-O scowled, staying at the place where he could see the access tunnel.
"Who's in charge here?" He growled to himself, but Leanne still heard it.
"It's a decent plan." She said to him, "If it's dark, we do have a better chance of getting in unnoticed."
"I thought you were on my side." Lion-O said grumpily.
"I'm not taking sides, I'm just saying Panthro's plan is the safer one." Leanne said. Lion-O wasn't listening, he was looking down at the entrance to the tunnel where the two lizard guards were. He glanced back to where Panthro and the others had left, and smirked. Leanne looked at him with surprised eyes and she nudged him roughly with her elbow, "You better not be thinking what I think you're thinking."
"That depends on what you think I'm thinking." Lion-O replied with a smirk.
"You know exactly what I think you're thinking." Leanne said, "Don't do it, Lion-O. It's stupid."
"What is?" Lion-O said, playing innocent.
"You going down there and taking out those guards by yourself!" Leanne hissed. Lion-O smirked.
"Your words, your idea!" He said, jumping up and going down there. Leanne gaped at him.
"Lion-O!" She tried to reach out and stop him, but he got away too quickly. Leanne sighed, shaking her head, "Oh, brother…" She got up and went over to the others, quickly telling them what just happened. When she was done, Panthro made a remark about Lion-O not having a brain and he led the group down to where Lion-O was already surrounded by a large group of lizards.
"Drop your weapons!" He shouted at them, they didn't budge, "Please?"
"Kill him!" The lizard in charge shouted. Before they even pulled the triggers on their guns, Panthro had pulled out his nun-chucks, and had easily begun taking out two lizards every second. After a moment, all the lizards were down on the ground, unconscious. Lion-O looked up at Panthro in awe of his battle skills as he put his weapon away.
"What is wrong with you?!" Panthro demanded.
"Me?" Lion-O asked, "I gave an order! You ignored it!" The two cats glared at each other. Fearing things might get worse, Cheetara, Tygra, and Leanne went over to Lion-O's side.
"He is the king now, Panthro." Cheetara said.
"So that means I've got to listen to any idiotic order he gives me?" Panthro snapped, still glaring at Lion-O.
"I guess all the stories of your undying loyalty were exaggerated." Lion-O replied, glaring back at him.
"You'll have my loyalty when you show me you can do more with that sword than just carry it around!" Panthro said, he started walking into the tunnel, he looked over his shoulder at everyone but Lion-O, "Come on, let's find the Thundrelium and get out of here." Everyone did as he ordered and followed him inside, Leanne hesitated when she saw Lion-O wasn't coming.
"Lion-O?" She called softly, she went over to him, putting her hand gently on his arm, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah…" Lion-O mumbled, he pulled his arm away from her hand and started following the others. She followed him inside.
As they snuck through the tunnel, they passed a large amount of mining equipment that wasn't being used. They went through a tunnel, and stopped at the entrance of it, and looked down at the mining that was being done by the lizards. Carts of magenta minerals, which looked like quartz to Leanne, were being sent through a system they had set up.
"Thundrelium…" Lion-O murmured, seeing it.
"Enough to power a thousand Thunder Tanks for a thousand years." Panthro said. A form walked past the tunnel they were hiding in, and everyone recognized the huge, dark-furred cat with only one saber tooth. Panthro glared at him, "Grune…" Leanne, judging by the look in his eyes, stayed away from him. She thought it was too personal to see into his memories again, and she didn't want to. They watched as Grune went toward a full cart of the magenta-colored power source and picked up a small one, inspecting it with a smile. Panthro moved away from the entrance and looked back at everyone else, "We move on my lead, got it?" No one disputed him, even though Leanne could tell Lion-O really wanted to.
They hid out in a tunnel that the lizards were using to get the Thundrelium in and out of the mines. One lizard came in, riding on a motorized cart out of the tunnel. When he was deep enough in the tunnel that the darkness concealed him from the other lizards, Cheetara jumped up and threw him down. The lizards outside the tunnel heard the other lizard's cry of pain and they hissed angrily, their weapons pointed at the tunnel's entrance as they went inside. Tygra, who had made himself invisible with his whip, made himself visible again and knocked the two of them out, throwing one against the wall, and throwing the other one out of the tunnel. More lizards had begun to gather at the entrance, and two more went in. Leanne used her powers to blow them back with a huge gust of wind, causing them to hit their heads, which had lost their helmets, to bang against the ground, effectively taking them out. Two more came in, and Lion-O raised up his sword, cutting through their gun, making it explode. The sound of the explosion caught the attention of everyone outside the tunnel, including Grune, and they made their appearances known.
"ThunderCats!" He exclaimed, seeing them, "Oh, you fools! You brought the sword and the jewel right to me! And now you'll never make it out of here alive."
"They will." Panthro said from behind him. Grune turned around, looking at him in shock as Panthro glared at him, "I just can't say the same for you."
Quickly regaining his composure from the sudden surprise, Grune sighed tiredly, "You've always been hard to kill, Panthro."
"I can be stubborn when it comes to dying." Panthro said.
"This isn't going to go well, is it?" Cheetara asked.
"Nope." Leanne replied, popping her lips on the 'p'.
"Now, let's see…" Panthro growled, "When was the last time I saw you? Oh, I remember, after dragging us through a hellish sandstorm, you went into that pyramid, and released Mumm-Ra from where he was imprisoned! And when I tried to stop you, you fought me until I couldn't and left me for dead!" He gritted his teeth angrily at the end, "We sure have some great memories together! You betrayed me, Grune! You betrayed your brothers! All those deaths, and you're still not the king!"
"Don't lecture me, Panthro." Grune said, "If it's revenge you seek, then come take it."
"With pleasure!" Panthro growled, pulling out his nun-chucks. He stopped when the ground began to shake.
"What is that?" Leanne shouted over the rumblings, "An earthquake?"
"The only thing you can trust!" Grune shouted as something shot out of the ground, showing that it was a robot designed specifically for drilling, just by looking at its robotic limbs, which were basically just large drills, "A machine!" He looked up at the robot, "Destroy them, Driller!" The machine, doing as it commanded, went after the others as Grune began to run, "Until next time, Panthro!"
"Grune!" Panthro snarled, going after him. Driller blocked his path, and when Panthro tried to knock him out of the way with his nun-chucks, Driller easily knocked them away and threw Panthro back before he started drilling multiple holes all through the mine around them. After a second, he stopped, and there was a silence. Leanne could hear her heart pounding in her ears as she waited for the robot to attack. The rumbling sound of him drilling through the ground began again, and the floor she stood on began to shake. Driller came out of the ground behind her, and she jumped back in fear. Lion-O, acting quickly, pulled out his sword.
"ThunderCats! Ho!" The Eye of Thundera quickly began to glow, and he stepped in front of her. The Eye of Thundera shot out small bolts of lightning and Panthro looked at Lion-O with wide eyes as he wielded the sword's power. The Driller paid no attention to it as he turned his arms into a giant buzz saw and came at Lion-O. He easily blocked the strike and knocked the robot away. The machine quickly recovered from it, he ran back at Lion-O, using his drilling head as a weapon this time and Lion-O blocked it with the stone in the sword. No matter how hard Driller tried to break through it, he couldn't.
"Now that's what I call impressive!" Panthro said, watching the battle. Lion-O pushed the robot back, and cut off the top of the drill on his head. The robot fell to the ground, the cut Lion-O had made causing him to malfunction and shut down. Suddenly, the mine began to rumble again, but this was much worse, because the mine was beginning to collapse on itself.
"The Driller weakened the mine!" Tygra shouted, and everyone began to run away, looking for a way out. They started running through the tunnel that they came in through, but Cheetara stopped, taking a glance back at the mine.
"We have to go now!" Lion-O shouted, noticing she had stopped. Cheetara, using her speed, ran to one of the carts and picked up a small piece of Thundrelium.
"Not without this." She said, she ran back to the others and they ran out of the tunnel, just as the mine began destroy the inside of the mountain. They dove out of the tunnel's entrance, Lion-O covering Leanne for protection as the mine began to crumble. When it stopped, they looked back, seeing the remnant dust from the destroyed rocks inside coming up from around the mountain's peak.
"Well, that will slow down Mumm-Ra's army for a while." Lion-O said as he looked at the access tunnel, which was now blocked by the mine's rocks.
"I guess your father's sword wound up in the right hands after all." Panthro said, Lion-O looked back at him in surprise. "I served him proudly, and you can expect the same." Lion-O, seeing an opportunity, turned to him with a grin.
"So, you think when we get the Thunder Tank fixed, I could drive it?" He asked. Panthro frowned.
"Not a chance!" He smirked, "My king."