26
The tank thundered along the ground as they headed towards Mount Plun-Darr. As they rode, Pumyra began to give some details as to what they were made to do, and who it was that told them to do it. From what Leanne could understand, they were basically rats. She wasn't looking forward to seeing one. Mice she could handle just fine, she actually thought they were pretty cute, but rats? The thought made her shudder.
"They mostly just set us to digging out tunnels in the mines, but that was just the easy job." Pumyra said, "The hard part was what he really wanted us for."
"What was that?" Leanne asked.
"He would take two cats at a time and send them down into one of the tunnels." Pumyra said, "He told them to mine out the sword of Plun-Darr." Leanne and Lion-O's eyes widened at the mention of it. "It always ended in a cave-in. The legends say that the Sword of Plun-Darr is cursed, and that all who seek it are fated to die." She growled a little, "He didn't want to go after it himself, so instead he just keeps sending them in one by one until he can get his precious sword, sacrificing all of our lives!"
"Are you sure it was the Sword of Plun-Darr?" Lion-O asked, "You're absolutely certain?"
Pumyra nodded, "Yes. I heard him say the name so many times, the calluses on my ears have it memorized." She said.
Leanne let out a deep breath and leaned back against her seat, "This is bad… But what would a bunch of rats want with the Sword of Plun-Darr?"
"Probably the same thing Mumm-Ra wanted it for." Lion-O said.
"How did you escape?" Cheetara asked.
"By the skin of my teeth." Pumyra replied, "There was a small blind spot in the guard's surveillance of the place. I waited until nightfall, when three new moons rose. It was my best chance, and I took it. But the second I was out, I was thrown into The Pit."
"Lies." A voice whispered in Leanne's ear. She jumped, looking at Pumyra with wide eyes, and then looked down at the Jewel of Omens. Surely she wouldn't…
"Um… that can't be all, can it?" She asked Pumyra. She looked over at Leanne, "I-I mean… there must be more to the story than just that."
"What more do you want to hear?" Pumyra snapped, "How I got caught by a bunch of dogs as a runaway slave? Or how I battled it out in The Pit?"
"Okay, sorry." Leanne said, "I was just… wondering." She was a slave for a long time, she thought, she was probably just lying about how smooth the escape went. She'll tell the truth when the time comes. But one part of her deep down knew that Pumyra was lying. She quickly stomped out any doubts. Lion-O trusted her, and so should she.
The tank slowly came to a stop, and everyone stepped out, seeing they were a pretty good distance from the mountain. Everyone filed out, making sure that none of the rats on guard would be able to see them, carefully moving from rock to rock. Soon, they reached the blind spot that Pumyra had spoken of and snuck past their surveillance, going near the slave camps. They looked down as they watched Cat slaves going in and out of tunnels, all of them exhausted and tired as they moved around the mining gear and supplies.
"I can't stand to see our people treated like this." Cheetara said.
"Try living it." Pumyra said, "For months I suffered lashings from those rodents."
"Lies." The voice whispered again in Leanne's ear, and she shook her head to be rid of it. She probably just confused the time she spent here.
"We gave up hope of being saved long ago." She finished.
"Today they will go free. That's a promise." Lion-O said.
"You say it's the Sword of Plun-Darr that old rat is digging for?" Panthro asked. Pumyra nodded.
"If what I learned through the Book of Omens is true," Lion-O began, "Its power rivals my own sword." He looked down at the camp again, "If Mumm-Ra finds that weapon, it may not matter if we get to the other stones first." Leanne nodded.
"Then while you go and free your people, I'll go and find the sword." She said, standing up. Lion-O looked at her with wide eyes.
Cheetara stood up with her, "You could probably use some help. It was hard enough for you to hide your species in Thundera. If I come along, I might make it a little more convincing." Leanne smiled and nodded in thanks. They turned to walk away, when Tygra stood up as well.
"I'm coming with you." He said.
"Don't think we can handle it alone?" Cheetara asked him.
"Why would you want to?" He asked, "When you can handle it with me?"
Leanne made a gagging noise in the back of her throat.
Panthro shook his head and sighed, "Oh, brother."
"Fine, you can come with us." Leanne said, "But if I hear one sexist comment come out of your mouth, I'm bailing on you."
"Fair enough." Tygra said with a shrug. They began to head down the mountain side to sneak in, but Lion-O came up and ran to the front of the group, where Leanne was leading them.
He stood in front of her, and there was a pause for a moment, where they both just stared at each other. She could see the concern in his eyes, silently telling her, 'I don't want you to go' and it seemed like he was about to voice this, but he stopped, and closed his mouth. "Leanne, I…" She looked up at him expectantly.
"Yeah?" She asked. Lion-O sighed.
"Be careful." He said. Leanne sighed at the anti-climactic words, but gave him a small smile.
"You got it, dude." Leanne said, giving him a thumbs-up.* She and the others continued down the mountainside, and Lion-O watched them until they were out of sight. Once they were gone, he still stood there for a moment, and Pumyra came up beside him.
"You like her, don't you?" She asked him with a knowing grin.
"Ye— No!" Lion-O said quickly, "I— She— I mean—" He sighed, "I'm over it."
"Maybe it's time you move on to someone else?" Pumyra suggested. Lion-O looked at her, surprised at her words. It hadn't really occurred to him to be with someone else. His mind had been more focused on the mission than finding a girlfriend, mostly because he needed to busy himself, or he would over-think his relationship with Leanne to a point where he would start to depress himself. Pumyra seemed to be offering a relationship with her which, if he thought about it, didn't seem like a horrible idea, but he wasn't sure if it was the best idea at the moment.
"Enough flirting." Panthro's voice interrupted his thoughts, "Let's do something about those slaves." Lion-O nodded and they all moved down to the camp, being careful about staying out of sight of the rats.
After some more sneaking around, Cheetara got a hold of three cloaks for she, Tygra, and Leanne to wear, and Tygra got three pairs of handcuffs. With a little help from Cheetara, they put some mud on her face to create the false illusion that she was another Cat, so she would be able to sneak in easier. Their plan, mostly Tygra's, was to sneak in with the slaves to get to the dig site where they could find the Sword of Plun-Darr. As they were walking in the lines with the slaves, Cheetara turned to him and whispered, "This is a terrible idea, by the way."
"I'm with Cheetara." Leanne whispered from behind him, "We could have just snuck around the guards!"
"This is the surest way to get us to the dig site without getting in trouble." Tygra whispered back to them. He held up his hand, "Besides, these chains aren't even locked."
"Hey! You three!" A voice shouted, they all froze, as well as the rest of the line. One of the rat guards came up to them, looking over their appearances. They lowered their heads a little, trying to hide their appearances from him, but also looking a little afraid. The rat looked at their wrists, and began to lock the handcuffs. "That's better. Wouldn't want you running off and getting hurt." The way he spoke made them think that 'getting hurt' was the last reason they were in handcuffs. The guard moved away and began to inspect the cuffs of the slaves behind them, to make sure there was nothing wrong with them, and the two girls turned and glared at Tygra.
He shrugged sheepishly, "At least this will make our disguises more convincing." He whispered.
Cheetara sighed, her glare disappearing and a small smile coming on her face as she looked down at her handcuffs, "You're lucky you're cute."
"When we get out of this, remind me to smack you silly." Leanne whispered to him. Tygra's grin disappeared, turning into a grimace.
Lucas stood at the entrance of the temple, watching as the soldiers all filed into the machines and tanks, preparing for battle against the Rats and the ThunderCats. The generals had yet to come out of the temple, because they were still prepping themselves, grabbing their weapons of choice. He heard clawed feet tapping on the metal flooring behind him, and he looked back to see the three of them approaching the entrance. He turned to them, waiting for them to pass by. Slithe walked by with only a glance and nod in acknowledgement, and he returned it, Atticus only hefted his bludgeoner, paying no mind to him. Lucas watched as they walked out to the other soldiers, and he froze slightly when he realized only two had gone through the entrance. He looked back and saw Kanar standing just a few feet away from him, looking at him expectantly as his axe rested on his shoulder.
"I'm almost afraid to ask…" He muttered, looking at the Jackal, "But why are you here? Don't you need to get going?"
"Just making sure little junior here remembers his homework." Kanar said, coming over and ruffling Lucas's bleached hair with a laugh. Lucas sighed softly to himself, letting the Jackal tease him because he was a little afraid to find out what would happen if he smacked his hands away. "Maybe you need a refresher before I go?"
Lucas's blood ran cold at the thought of a 'refresher' and jumped back from him, and Kanar smiled when he saw the fear in his eyes, which bore little dark circles from his lack of sleep recently.
"I don't need a f**king refresher!" He snapped at him, "I remember your damn lessons! Just…" He turned away, taking a deep breath, not daring to look at the Jackal, "Just go already." Kanar laughed his signature laugh as he went through the entrance, and Lucas felt a shudder run through him. He looked back out when Kanar's laughter had faded and saw they were all filing into the vehicles, with Mumm-Ra's unusual vehicle that resembled the head of a sphinx leading the way. He watched as all the engines revved up and they all drove off, leaving a huge trail of dust behind them. Once they were all gone, Lucas closed the door to the temple, heaving a heavy sigh.
"I hope to God I don't find anyone here." He prayed quietly as he went about walking through the halls of the temple.
It didn't take them much longer after that to reach the dig site and they joined a huge group of Cats. As they were walking in, a few Rats came up from below, saying that the last cave in had been cleared, and it would be easy for them to enter.
"All right," The head Rat turned to the crowd of slaves, "Who's next?" A fearful murmur flowed through the crowd, all Cats staying close to their loved ones in the group. The Rat sighed, "Don't all jump at once. At the rate we're losing Cats, you'll all get your chance." His eyes scanned through the crowd, "How about… You two?" He pointed to a pair of children, who gasped in fear, and clung to their mother in the crowd. "Grab them." A pair of Rats went forward and began to separate the children from their mother, and they cried out for her, sobbing as tears ran in torrents down their cheeks. Their mother shouted back, reaching for her children, but the guards restrained her.
"Stop!" The Rats paused when they looked to see three cloaked figures standing away from the crowd.
"We'll go." Cheetara said.
"Finally some brave Cats." The head Rat muttered, he waved his hand, signaling for the guards to release the two kittens, who ran back to their mother. "Let's see if your cockiness saves you from the sword's curse." Two guards went over and unlocked their handcuffs, and they walked out onto the platform. The Rats hit a switch and it started to lower down further underground. Once they were completely out of sight and surveillance, they removed the cloaks.
"Did he say 'curse'?" Cheetara asked.
"It's probably just superstition to keep the slaves scared." Tygra assured her.
"I hope you're right." Cheetara said, looking around the tunnel.
"I'm right about everything." Tygra replied, winking at her.
Leanne let out a scoff, "Yeah, right."
Suddenly, the thick rope holding up the platform snapped, and they all began to plummet down the hole. As they fell, Cheetara pulled out her staff and extended it so it would be something of a brake as she fell. She eventually slowed to a stop, while Tygra and Leanne kept falling, but Tygra pulled out his whip and used it to grab onto the staff, while Leanne moved her feet towards the ground and had fire shoot from the arches of her feet, sending her up into the air, and grabbing onto the staff as well. The three of them hung there while the platform continued to plummet and crashed on the ground with a loud bang!
They all had a good grip on the staff, their feet dangling in the air. Cheetara turned to Tygra with a small glare. "No curse, huh?" She asked sarcastically.
He turned his head to the side, "I'm still not convinced." He said, Leanne rolled her eyes, he looked to Cheetara, "But if there was, it'd be no match for the two of us." Cheetara smiled at him, and Leanne stuck out her tongue.
"You know, all your cheesiness is making me lactose intolerant." She snapped at them. "And how are we supposed to get down from here, anyway?"
"Well, you can manipulate the earth, Leanne." Cheetara said, Leanne looked over at them and saw they were both staring expectantly at her. She huffed out a sigh and moved so she would be able to keep a good grip on Cheetara's staff with one hand by pulling herself up and swinging her elbow over the side. She lifted up her hand, and waved it, watching as a huge ramp of earth jutted out from the side of the tunnel, one part growing large enough so that she could simply let go of the staff and she would be able to put her feet on it. Cheetara and Tygra moved along the staff so they could join her on the ramp, and Leanne waved her hand to create more of a pathway for them to walk on. She kept this up until they were all the way at the bottom of the tunnel.
Once they were there, Tygra pulled out a large glow stick to act as a light as they went through the tunnel. Cheetara kept glancing back uneasily at the crashed platform.
"The platform falling?" She began.
"Was a coincidence." Tygra said assuredly. The light flickered on the torch, and Leanne created a small ball of fire to act as their light while Tygra got it to work again.
"Now the torch is going out." Cheetara continued.
"Shoddy equipment." Tygra said in that same assured tone.
"And the Cats who died down here?" Leanne asked him, just as wary of this curse as Cheetara.
"We only heard that Cats died, it's not like…" He trailed off as he looked at the remains of a cave in, seeing the skeleton of someone had been pierced by a stone. He turned back to the girls, "Look, if we stick together, we can survive whatever—"
"Look out!" Cheetara suddenly slammed into Tygra, knocking him out of the way as one of the stalagmites (Or was it stalactites? Leanne never knew the difference) slammed down into the ground where Tygra had just been standing. Leanne let out a frightened yelp and looked at it with wide eyes. That was almost her. They both looked to Tygra, wondering if he still thought there was nothing to this curse, and he looked back at them.
"A freak accident." He said. The tunnel suddenly began to shake and rumble as more stalactites fell from the ceiling of the tunnel, and everyone began to run from it towards a more covered part of the dig site.
As they ran, Leanne shouted, "Tygra, stop jinxing us!" They dashed as quickly as they could to the end of the tunnel, and once they were all in safely, the rumbling stopped and the stalagmites no longer fell. Leanne, panting from the sudden mad dash she had done, turned to Tygra with a small glare, "Freak accident, huh?"
"Or not." Tygra admitted.
"Jinxer." Leanne snapped.
"What is a jinxer?" Tygra asked.
"A jinxer is a person who jinxes other people because they're too stupid to realize they're jinxing them!" Leanne snapped.
"I am not jinxing us!" Tygra snapped back.
"Guys, look." Cheetara's voice stopped them and she pointed to a large red crystal ahead of them, wherein lied an object that was as large as Tygra's torso. The three of them approached it, trying to make out its shape.
"The Sword of Plun-Darr must be in there." Leanne said, she reached out and touched the crystal where the sword was placed. She closed her eyes as she took in the feeling of the magic surrounding it, "I can sense a strong energy around it, but it's not evil. It's like… there's a coating of energy over the really dark energy that the sword has." She pulled her hand back from the crystal, opening her eyes.
"So how do we get it out?" Tygra asked.
"I know this is going to sound really weird," Leanne said, looking at the couple, "But the magic I feel around the sword feels like Jaga's magic."
"And that magic flows through me." Cheetara said, she grasped her staff, lengthening it. It glowed a dim golden color and she spun it in her hands, letting it gain some velocity before she thrust it at the crystal, right where the object was, and it shattered, leaving a hole just big enough for the object, which revealed itself to be a huge, black gauntlet, to rest in.
"That's my girl." Tygra praised, "See? Told you all that nonsense about this thing being—"
"Jinxer! Silence yourself!" Leanne snapped, interrupting him. He scowled at her, and she glared firmly back at him, "Do. Not. Taunt. The. Curse."
Tygra rolled his eyes, but said nothing as he reached up and tried to pull the gauntlet from the crystal. When he couldn't get it out, Cheetara grabbed the other side of it and put her hand over Tygra's to help him pull it out. When that still didn't work, Leanne moved in between them and stood on her tiptoes to reach the top of the gauntlet. They all gave a hard tug, and it came out from where it was trapped. They smiled at their success, but they quickly disappeared as the tunnel began to shake again, and rocks began to fall. Another cave in!
"Should we make a run for it?!" Tygra asked over the noise.
"We'll never make it!" Cheetara said.
"I could make a barrier, but I don't know how strong it'll be!" Leanne shouted.
Tygra turned to Cheetara, "You're fast enough to get out of here! Go!"
"You know I'd never leave you behind!" Cheetara said.
Tygra grasped her shoulders gently, "If this is our last moment together, we'd better make the most of it." Cheetara smiled at him, and he placed his hand on her cheek, leaning in to kiss her. Leanne mentally groaned to herself.
"Nice. They die together, and I die as the third wheel." She muttered, lifting up her hands and creating a stone arch over them to protect them as the larger boulders began to fall from the ceiling. They all hit the ground around the arch, but never the arch itself. After a moment, the boulders stopped, and so did the shaking. There was a silence. "…It stopped."
Tygra pulled away from Cheetara and they looked out at the fallen boulders.
"We… We survived." Cheetara breathed, unable to believe it.
"Told you sticking together would save us from the curse." Tygra said with a grin.
"Actually, I think we just got lucky." Leanne said. Tygra put his arm around Cheetara's shoulders.
"You're right. We did." He said. Cheetara smiled at him, and Leanne grimaced a little in disgust at the double-meaning.
"Dude! I'm right-freaking-here!" Leanne snapped. Tygra frowned at her, and Cheetara rolled her eyes. Leanne sighed, "Never mind. Let's just get this thing back to Lion-O." She reached down and picked up the large gauntlet. Because of its size, it was a little awkward to carry it on her own, so Cheetara went over and carried one side, while Tygra carried the other. Leanne was surprised at their sudden willingness to help her, but she didn't question it as they headed back up the ramp Leanne had made, planning to go out the way they came.
They were concerned about finding the rat guards up there, but they were ready to fight. However, when they reached the top, they found it was empty, of both slaves and guards.
"They must have fled when the earthquake started." Leanne said, "Hopefully Lion-O's helped them already."
They continued walking through the mountain, finding it was completely empty of any and all rats. As they reached the exit, they saw a huge crowd of Cats walking away from the mountain, there were no chains on them, and they all seemed happy. Leanne happened to see the two kittens and their mother, who were all happy as they walked together. They kept walking towards where the crowd was coming from, and saw Lion-O taking off the chains of different slaves. When it came down to the last one, his chains fell down into a huge pile. He rubbed his wrists, feeling the skin that had rested underneath the metal and smiled at Lion-O.
"Thank you, my king." He said gratefully.
"Rataro fled back underground." Lion-O told him, "You'll be safe in the old settlement just outside the ruins of Thundera." The Cat nodded, bowing to his king, before walking away to join the others.
"That's every cat accounted for, except for Tygra, Cheetara, and Lee." Panthro said, he sighed, "What if they couldn't find the sword?"
"As if there was any doubt." Tygra said. The others looked back and Lion-O smiled when he saw them, Cheetara and Tygra holding the gauntlet, and Leanne just beside them.
"You just have to make an entrance, don't you, Jinxer?" Leanne asked him. Tygra scowled at the name.
"Will you stop calling me that?" He asked her.
"Nope!" Leanne stated, "Jinxer is going to be your name from now on." Tygra rolled her eyes when she stuck her tongue out at him.
"I'm glad you made it." Lion-O said, walking up to them as the couple put the gauntlet down. He came up to Leanne, "Are you okay?"
"Don't worry, Lion-O, we're fine." Leanne said, giving him a small smile.
"But are you okay?" Lion-O asked, Leanne looked at him with wide eyes, surprised that he was specifically asking about her wellbeing. She blushed a little.
"Um, yeah, I'm fine." She said, "The worst we probably got was a couple scrapes. Nothing serious. Did things go well on your end?"
"Well enough." Lion-O shrugged, he looked down at the Sword of Plun-Darr. "Mumm-Ra's sword."
"This isn't a weapon for Cats to wield." Cheetara said.
"I couldn't agree more." Leanne said, "We need to take this somewhere and hide it, maybe the Tower of Omens. And we need to do it before Mumm-Ra finds out we dug it up."
"It's too late for that." Panthro said, everyone looked up and saw him pointing to the horizon, where a huge army was approaching the mountain, and they were armed to the teeth. Leanne felt her stomach drop at the sight of it.
*If you get this reference, I love you.
I'm sorry this chapter is so short, but the next one should be able to make up for it.