Chapter Sixteen
The first thing I saw when I emerged from the Refuge was that everything was grey and lifeless. The once fertile world of Third Earth had turned into a wasteland as a result of the forces that had been unleashed in the battle against Mumm-Ra. Where I would once have seen lush, verdant forests or grasslands teeming with life, I now saw nothing . . . Nothing but an expanse of grey, broken only by the occasional stunted skeleton of a dead tree. I shuddered involuntarily; my father had told me it was grim outside, but I hadn't realised just how grim.
"It's like everything's dead," I heard Jaya remark beside me. Like me, she hadn't been outside the Refuge since our last battle and, as a result, she too had had no idea what to expect. She bent down and scooped up a handful of grey soil, letting it trickle through her fingers. Everywhere, as far as I could see, was grey now - grey and barren. I was just wondering if Third Earth would stay like this forever or life would return one day when I heard Pumar calling.
"Hey, Storm and Jaya, come on! We've got a lot of work to do!"
I couldn't help wondering what sort of work there was to do in this bleak landscape. As far as I could see, there was nothing living out here apart from ourselves: three Thundercats and a Warrior Maiden. But my father always said we could never be too careful, that we had to be sure every last member of the Cult of Mumm-Ra was rounded up. Until then, we would not be able to help the people of Third Earth rebuild.
But could this planet even be called Third Earth anymore? There seemed to be almost nothing left of the world I had known, the world which had once offered the Thundercats sanctuary - of a sort. Now, all was gone - the verdant forests, the simple villages . . . everything had been swept away and all that remained was this bleak desolation. Jaya's remark that everything looked "dead" echoed in my mind as I hurried to join the others.
As we walked across the wastelands, I thought I heard a noise. I considered telling Pumar but decided not to, thinking he might dismiss it as "just my imagination". But, seconds later, I heard it again, slightly louder this time. Then, when I heard it a third time, I decided I could keep quiet about it no longer. Pumar would have to be told.
I hurried over to where he walked at the head of our group; Ocelotra was next in line and Jaya and I brought up the rear. "Pumar?" I ventured, tapping him on the shoulder.
He turned to look at me. "What is it, Storm?"
"Pumar," I said again, "I thought I heard something."
He paused to listen, then drew his weapon, signalling to the rest of us to do likewise. Tension pervaded the air and I wondered just what it was I had heard. Whatever it was, it was clear that Pumar was taking it seriously, though he could hardly be expected to do otherwise under our current circumstances. We were on a barren wasteland of a planet, on a mission to round up the Mutants and Lunatacs who had, until recently, belonged to the Cult of Mumm-Ra. And, while a significant number had been caught, many still remained at large. Mumm-Ra, however, was our biggest worry; he had been conspicuous by his absence lately, which probably meant he was trying to lull us into a false sense of security.
In any case, we moved cautiously, alert for the slightest sound, ready to defend ourselves if the need arose. As Thundercats, Pumar, Ocelotra and I were pledged not to fight unless it was absolutely necessary; that was part of the Code of Thundera, part of the laws which have shaped Thunderian culture. Jaya had her own code of honour; as a Warrior Maiden, she was pledged to defend the weak, to only take up weapons against a sentient life-form if it posed a threat.
But what was it that I had heard? I would soon receive my answer . . .
Rounding a rocky outcrop, we came across the source of the noise I had heard. A flock of birds was circling around as though they were searching for something; the sound that had caught my attention was the squawking cries they were making. And they had the look of scavengers about them, leading me to suspect that the thing they were looking for was carrion. In other words, something which was either dead or about to die. The thought made me feel a little queasy, but I pushed it to the back of my mind; as a future Lord of the Thundercats, I had to appear calm and in control at all times.
"Pumar, those birds!" I calling, pointing.
He looked in the direction I indicated. "Yes, we've seen them before," he told me. "In fact, they're the only living things we've seen lately - apart from members of the Cult, that is. I've asked the Third Earthlings about them, but none of them have seen birds like this before."
"Then they must have appeared after everything got burnt." I gestured round at the bleak grey landscape. "But where did they come from?"
"No-one knows, but we've been calling them the Doomsday Birds. We're all right as long as they stay in the sky, but, if they start to descend, that's the time to make a run for it." Pumar looked at Jaya and me seriously, then decided we were old enough to handle what he was about to tell us. "Storm, Jaya, if you don't get out of their way quickly, you're as good as dead on the spot. So keep your eyes on the sky and, if you see them start to fly lower, be ready to run. If you find a . . ." He broke off as the Doomsday Birds suddenly ceased their circling and began to descend. "Right! Run!" he ordered.
"Can't we fight them?" I asked, as Ocelotra and Jaya hurried to do as Pumar had ordered. After all, I thought to myself, the Thundercats were not supposed to run away like cowards; they were supposed to fight, no matter how overwhelming the odds. Besides, how dangerous could a flock of birds be?
"There are too many of them," Ocelotra said, urging me forward. "We wouldn't stand a chance. Besides, you've never seen those things in action - Pumar and I have."
Seconds later, a laser beam blasted the area where we had been only moments before. Except, there was nothing in the immediate vicinity that could fire a laser beam; no-one in our party was carrying a laser gun and the only other living things present were the Doomsday Birds. So where had the beam come from? I glanced back quickly and received my answer - one of the Birds had opened its beak and a powerful beam of red light shot out, narrowly missing Jaya. Clearly, these Doomsday Birds were not something to be taken lightly.
"What are we going to do?" Jaya asked as we continued to try and stay ahead of the Doomsday Birds. We had already been running for some time, but the fiends showed no signs of tiring and I wondered if they would keep chasing us forever. Not a very cheerful thought . . .
"What we always do when we encounter these things," Ocelotra replied. "Keep running!" But surely there was a better way than that; perhaps, if everyone in the Refuge worked together, we could find a way of defeating these deadly Birds. At least we could try; after all, there was no way we could keep running indefinitely. Not only that, but, if we were to help the Third Earthlings rebuild, we would have to find some means of dealing with this latest threat. I couldn't be sure, but I had a feeling Mumm-Ra was behind this somehow.
For now, though, all I could do was run, run from a flock of birds which came armed with laser beams. And, unless we could find a cave or a hollow, we stood no chance of evading these things; we were already quite a distance from the Refuge. I was beginning to understand why my mother had been so reluctant to allow Jaya and myself to be included in the patrol. The name Doomsday Birds was certainly an apt one; those laser beams looked like they could do some serious damage . . . A cry from just behind me caught my attention and I turned to see that Jaya had stumbled and fallen awkwardly. I hurried over to her. "Are you OK?" I asked as I knelt down beside her. "Can you get up?"
She struggled for a moment, then sank back down. "No . . . My ankle - I seem to have twisted it. You'll have to leave me. Run! Save yourself!" She looked at the Doomsday Birds, now hovering directly overhead.
"Not a chance," I told her. For one thing, the Code of Thundera would never allow a Thundercat, especially one destined to become Lord of the Thundercats, to abandon a friend in their hour of need. Jaya was my friend and I was not about to leave her to get blasted by these feathered freaks. I made to pick her up, determined that we would get out of this somehow - both of us. However, I found that she was heavier than I had expected and I could do nothing but shield her with my body as the nearest Doomsday Bird moved in to attack.
I screwed my eyes shut as the Bird fired its laser beam, not wanting to see what would happen if I was . . .
But the thing I was expecting to happen never happened. Instead, I heard the agonised squawk of a bird in pain, followed seconds later by the thump of something falling out of the sky. Curious, I opened my eyes to see just what had been responsible for the sounds I had just heard. What I saw was something I had, even with everything that had happened lately, never expected to see.
An Ice Lunatac was standing right in the path of the Doomsday Birds. It was a female and I recognised her immediately - it was Icelia, the Ice Lunatac who had contacted me on the way to Third Earth. Through all this time, I had never been entirely sure if she could be trusted and I wondered what she was up to now. All my life, I had heard stories about the time when the Mutants and Lunatacs were the sworn enemies of the Thundercats.
Suddenly, a bright blue beam shot out of Icelia's hands. It hit one of the Birds, sending it plummeting to the ground. I was stunned; it seemed Icelia was helping us, a Lunatac helping a Thundercat and a Warrior Maiden. Or was she? Was this apparent help just a ruse to get us to trust her?
However, I did not have long to wonder before a deafening clap of thunder rent the air and the already grey and leaden sky grew even darker as black clouds rolled in. As I looked up, something descended from the clouds on a flat red disc - or, rather, I should say someone descended from the clouds. And it was someone I had come to know all too well, someone who had been an ominous character of my childhood and who I had now come to know as a dangerous reality.
"Mumm-Ra!" I heard myself saying.
But Mumm-Ra paid me no heed; all his attention was focused on Icelia, who had already sent two more Doomsday Birds on a one-way trip to the ground. "So," he said, looking directly at her, "you seek to destroy my agents." It took me a moment to cotton on to what he meant by "his agents", then I realised that he must be talking about the Doomsday Birds. He must have created them to patrol the desolation that had once been Third Earth - their mission: seek out and destroy the Thundercats and their allies.
"Yes, Mumm-Ra," Icelia replied, her tone of voice neutral. "My people were once on the side of evil - but not anymore!" With that, she focused her powers on Mumm-Ra and sent another bright blue beam in his direction, clearly aiming to do to him what she had done to the Doomsday Birds. However, there was one obvious flaw in her plan; Mumm-Ra was not going to let a few beams of ice bother him.
Sure enough, seconds before Icelia's beams reached him, Mumm-Ra vaporised them with a wave of his hand. He then turned his powers on the Ice Lunatac and, within moments, she was surrounded by a glowing force-field, her body paralysed and her powers rendered useless. And, as Icelia cried out in agony, Mumm-Ra laughed the insane laugh of a megalomaniac; it was clear that he believed his return meant the start of a whole new order, one in which anything that did not fit in with his twisted view of life had to be destroyed.
I could not let that happen. As a Thundercat, it was my duty to fight creatures like this. True, I had had my doubts about Icelia in the past, in particular whether or not she could be trusted, but I knew that, if I left her to her fate, I would be as bad as any one of the Cult. Without stopping to think of the consequences, I ran forward, hearing Jaya crying out to me to stop but paying her no heed. The only thing I was aware of was Mumm-Ra, a being I can only describe as the embodiment of evil.
As I charged towards Mumm-Ra, he raised his hands and sent a crackling pulse of energy towards me. Drawing on the battle training I had received from Pumar, I dodged aside at the last moment. I may have been young and inexperienced, but I knew enough to know that attempting to fight Mumm-Ra hand-to-hand would not be a wise move. My best hope was to stay out of range of his energy blasts and hope he would run out of power. If he ever did . . . Another blast came zooming towards me, but I jumped out of range, trying to resist the urge to laugh at the look of surprise and fury on Mumm-Ra's face.
Again and again, Mumm-Ra tried to blast me. And, again and again, I dodged. But I knew I could not keep this up indefinitely; what I really needed was some means to sending this demon packing, at least for a while. However, I had nothing that could have much effect here. I was a fourteen-year-old Thunderian facing a being who was countless thousands of years old, a being vanquished eighty years ago and now returned to do what he had once failed to do: defeat the Thundercats. For the first time, I was beginning to understand why Wilykit had always said Mumm-Ra was the deadliest enemy our people had ever known.
As I backed away, I stumbled over a rock and fell in a rather inelegant position. Before I could pick myself up, however, Mumm-Ra was looming over me, his hands crackling with energy. "Now I have you, boy!" he told me, gloating in his moment of triumph. "And, unlike your exalted ancestor, you have no Eye of Thundera to come to your aid!" With that, he raised his hands and prepared to blast me. Before he could do so, however, he was knocked off balance by a blast of ice. Startled, I looked round to see that Icelia had escaped from the force-field which, moments before, had had her trapped.
"What the . . .?" I began, but Icelia cut me short.
"Mumm-Ra was distracted - he couldn't attack you and keep me imprisoned at the same time," she told me. "Now, listen, I want you to get the Warrior Maiden out of here. Tell your father and the rest of your allies they must get off this planet as quickly as possible. I'll hold Mumm-Ra off as long as I can."
"But . . ." I had several objections to Icelia's plan, not least of which was the fact that, as a future Lord of the Thundercats, I could not leave anyone to fight a creature like Mumm-Ra alone. Icelia had, by taking Mumm-Ra on in combat, proved beyond doubt that she was on our side - and the Code of Thundera forbade the Thundercats from abandoned an ally in a time of need.
"Don't argue!" Icelia shouted as she and Mumm-Ra sized each other up. "Just get out of here!"
"But what about the Code of Thundera?" I demanded, not thinking about the irony of the fact that I was saying those words to someone I had, as recently as a few minutes ago, considered a potential enemy. "What about Third Earth?"
Icelia gave a bitter laugh. "You don't get it, do you? Third Earth is finished - it's been finished for the last few days. This is Fourth Earth now."