Chapter 5

"Ah there they are, my two favorite students," Panthro smiled as he walked into the hangar where the ThunderTank and other vehicles were kept shortly after the meeting. The Tank was as good as new with some improvements and the other damaged vehicles had also been restored to their former glory. Now, new vehicles and weapons were being developed and sent off to the factory for mass production.

"Lord Panthro it is good to see you," Li-en smiled. The liger was finally up on his feet after spending three of the last six months in the hospital.

"Please call me Panthro. It is good to see you my friend. Doing well, I hope," the panther smiled back.

"Oh doing very well. Cavan and I have an announcement and I thought you should be the first to know," the liger was beaming and the aforementioned puma pulled herself out of the vehicle she was working on.

"An announcement? You take me up on my advice?" Panthro winked.

"Yes and we went a little further," Li-en's entire face was practically lit up now. The panther had seen that look before as Cavan showed off the ring which she had been given by her husband.

"Nine months from little tater tots?!" Panthro had a big smile on his face.

"Yes," Cavan was blushing at this point despite the fact that she was so excited to be expecting her first baby.

"That's fantastic! Congrats you two!" He pulled them in for a bear hug.

"What is going on? I haven't seen this much hugging in a room since they got the Tank to fire back up," Lea smirked as she approached the little group. Li-en quickly filled her in and then she hugged them too.

"That is so exciting!" The lioness beamed.

"It really is," Cavan was still blushing.

"We'll have to throw a party soon. First there are some real things that we need to get working on, King's orders," Panthro sobered for a few minutes.

"What does he need?" Li-en asked.

"More weapons and more vehicles. We're ramping up production at the factory. How's that new design for the baby tanks coming?" Panthro wanted to know.

"Excellently, if we do say so ourselves," Cavan smiled before heading over to her desk. She grabbed up the plans and a small three dimensional model and brought them over to the engineer.

"Oooh a sexier thing has never existed except for this lady over here," the panther smirked and it was Lea's turn to blush.

"I was thinking the same thing except about my wife," Li-en smiled.

"What are these going to be able to do?" Lea asked as she looked at the model.

"They are faster, more lightweight, than the ThunderTank, and as you'll notice they are more upright. These are purely for seek and destroy missions rather than transport and defend missions," Li-en explained. The lioness nodded. The model resembled more of the tank models used in the great battles fought when Third Earth was First Earth than they did the ThunderTank but there could be no doubts about it; the weapon would be incredibly useful.

"Large caliber Blaster Cannons, small holes in the sides for small arms fire to be directed at the opponents, and built in self-destruct with escape pod modules," Cavan said.

"Escape pod modules? You managed to get them in there?" Panthro wanted to know.

"The top portion of the tank detaches and encloses," Li-en told him.

"Let me look at the specifics. Great work you two. I've got to head back up to speak with Lion-O. I'll take these with and see what he thinks. Thanks!" The panther collected what he needed and moved to exit the room, Lea quickly followed.

"So what's up that you came all the way down to the hangar?" He asked, once they were alone.

"Well my shift ended and I figured that you were out of the very important meeting so I thought we could get some dinner," the lioness smiled slightly.

"Sounds fantastic," Panthro smiled back. They arrived at Lion-O's office and the panther didn't think to knock as the door opened with ease.

"Lion-O we have…" he stopped short when he found Cheetara sitting in the King's lap, their tongues buried in each other's mouths. They both had all of their clothes on but the panther figured that they intended to finish what they had started earlier.

"A knock would have been nice." The lion shook his head as the cheetah carefully extracted herself from his arms and stood beside him.

"The door opened. I figured it was safe," the panther chuckled.

"Well let's just say that I'm weirded out now," Lea spoke up. She had just seen her best friend and he half-brother making out; it was awkward.

"I really need to get a sign or something," Lion-O said before taking the plans and model that Panthro offered him. The panther laughed and laid out the details for him. They were in the middle of discussing the new weapon when a call was beeped into the room.

"Captain Mitsu is on video call, my King," the voice on the Comm said.

"He is? Put him through," the lion was surprised. The Captain had recovered from his injuries and had left Thundera to head for Third Earth where his wife could be better treated. He had also taken up his former command with the ThunderCats Air Fleet.

"My King, it is good to see you," Mitsu smiled slightly.

"And you Captain. How are things?" Lion-O asked.

"Things are why I called. I had two rookies attempting their first atmosphere punch and once they left the planet's surface, they collided with space debris. Debris that should not have been that close to our atmosphere sir," Mitsu explained.

"Are the rookies safe?" Lion-O wanted to know.

"Luckily they are for now but they cannot reenter the atmosphere with their damaged ships. A rescue effort has begun but I'm more worried about the debris sir. Willa and Nada alerted us to more junk dropping down near their Treetop Kingdom. I've dispatched a squad to see if they need help with the cleanup. I'm not sure exactly what it was that exploded but I have a bad feeling that we need to be concerned. We never received any distress calls," the liger admitted.

"Give me a full status update as soon as possible. I'll call Mandora and see if she has any flight plans filed with the Evil Chasers. A ship that large would have needed one," Lion-O ordered.

"Yes, my King," with that the call ended.

"What do you suppose happened?" Panthro asked.

"I don't know but I worry that Captain Mitsu is right. We need to be concerned," Lion-O shook his head.

To Be Continued…