Chapter 12
What he expected to get was a smack across the face, instead Lea pulled him in closer so that his lips were only centimeters away from hers.
"Well that's very thoughtful of you," her voice was barely above a whisper before she pulled him in close and laid one on him.
"Paws off my sister!" Lion-O teased but they weren't listening.
"Come up for air you two before I get Tygra to give you what for," Ben-Gali chuckled as he said it.
"Why am I the butt of the old jokes lately?" The orange tiger demanded.
"Makes little sense to me since I'm the oldest one here," Lynx-O said from behind them. Pumyra had brought him down to the Control Room hoping for news from the cats that returned from Third Earth.
"There's my one and only," Ben-Gali beamed. He was excited to see her but she seemed off. Not as thrilled to see him as he was her.
"What's wrong?" He pulled her aside and asked.
"I just haven't been feeling well the last couple of days. It's probably just stress. I am glad to see you though. Happy you're safe," she pulled him into a hug.
"You want Tygra to take a look at you? I hate it when you don't feel good," Ben-Gali said.
"I just probably need a good night's sleep with a warm body to keep me company," Pumyra teased.
"Yes ma'am," the white tiger waggled his eyebrows.
"We've got an incoming call from Mandora's private line!" Punthar announced as he entered the hallway.
"Everybody inside!" Lion-O ordered. The group quickly made their way into the room and Punthar accepted the call.
"Hello all. This is not the message I'm sure you were all hoping for. We have no word from our group that was sent to SG-17 yet. I do however expect a report within the next twelve hours. The Alien Rights Workers have landed on Plundarr and her moons. Unless the Mutants are as stupid as they are ugly, we won't be able to get the scientists off the planet. I'm still not sure how we're going to do it but maybe we'll get lucky and the scientists will be smart enough to find a way to get our troops a message that will give them cause to get the Mutants panties in a bunch," Mandora explained.
"A ray of sunshine you are, you know that?" Lion-O chuckled.
"Well I do the best I can. Say, when did you start growing chest hair?" The Evil Chaser asked. When Snarf moved, she almost passed out.
"It's just a certain someone who's happy to see I'm back on New Thundera," he smirked as Snarf clambered down to the floor.
"All right then. Anyway, keep your ears open. If something goes sideways you may need to be ready sooner than the wedding," Mandora told them.
"We have two months and we need all the time we can get," Panthro said.
"Cross your fingers then. Mandora out," the Evil Chaser ended the call.
"Well I guess that's about all we can do. The factories are already working three shifts," the panther said.
"Help! I need help!" Li-en voice came over the Control Room's internal communication device.
"What happened?" Panthro asked.
"Cavan!" The name was out of his mouth and Cheetara was already out the door. The group quickly followed.
Cheetara arrived down in the hangar to find three mechanics and Li-en trying to keep the ThunderClaw up off of the puma. She whipped out her bo-staff and quickly extended it. Then she shoved it underneath the vehicle where the three strong Cats were trying to hold it up. The staff lifted the vehicle just enough so that Li-en could let go and grab Cavan by her wrists. He pulled her out and they then backed away before knocking the bo-staff out of the way. The ThunderClaw came down hard and everyone realized just how close they were to having her crushed to death.
"What happened?" Panthro asked as he knelt down his two favorite students.
"We were working on the ThunderClaw when one of the jacks let go. Cavan tried to get out but the creeper cart hit something and she came off of it," Li-en explained as Pumyra and Tygra dropped down to take a look at the unconscious puma.
"She has a nasty gash, probably from the creeper cart when she came off of it. Get the medical staff down here with a gurney. Looks like she might have hit her head," Tygra said, pointing out the bruise that was rapidly forming on her forehead.
"Great Jaga. How does a jack just let go like that?" Lion-O asked as Ben-Gali was examining the one that managed to escape the crushing. The standard was to have three on a vehicle like the ThunderClaw but something didn't seem right as one jack letting go should still have given the other two a chance to hold up their ends of the weight longer than it had.
"Sabotage," Ben-Gali said as he pointed to the jack which had snapped in half.
To Be Continued…