A/N: Just an epilogue left to go. Hope you liked it. Thanks for the reviews!
Chapter 31
Lion-O finished up thanking Bo for his quick thinking and told him to take a few days off to make sure that he followed ThunderGuard procedure after a shooting that was not militaristic in nature. The liger thanked his King and promised to do what was required of him. Lion-O made a mental note to put him and the entire team that first arrived up for medals before hopping back into the ThunderTank and heading for the Lair.
"Mandora called again sir. She's waiting for the King's arrival," Punthar said via the radio.
"Thank you. Tell her we're two minutes out," Panthro responded.
"Will do," the puma responded.
"What I want to know is how the Mutants found Lo-ta and how did they get him to go and do such a thing," Lynx-O spoke up.
"I think we all want that. As it is, we'll have to bury him in an unmarked grave. Everyone who has relatives that were affected by this is going to want to see that he's dead," Cheetara pointed out, leaving out that there was the possibility of angry Cats digging up the body and taking their frustrations out on it. She didn't have to make a remark, everyone got her drift.
"All right everybody out," Panthro called from the front seat. They quickly disembarked and headed for the Control Room. Lea was already there along with the ThunderKittens. Punthar pulled the Evil Chaser up on the screen and turned on the audio.
"Ah, there you are. I was beginning to think you were dodging my calls," Mandora chuckled.
"I would never. Tygra needed me urgently in the Med Bay. So what did you find?" Lion-O partially smiled.
"I hope everyone is ok," Mandora said.
"We're hoping so too but Pumyra is still critical," the lion admitted. Mandora nodded and then quickly got down to business,
"I had a team sweep the homes and offices of all the scientists here who would have the knowledge on how to do what your Cat did with the Avian Plague. We found our guy. He sent instructions and money to Lo-ta who then sent money to Che. He claimed that he did it on his own but I have a forensic team searching everything this guy touched. My guess is that we'll find a connection to the Mutant High Council."
"Well that's good news. The only thing that still puzzles me is how they found Lo-ta. I mean it's not like he was on some list of high ranking officials or anything," Lion-O said.
"This may explain some things," Mandora looked down from her screen to her keyboard and punched up an image of what appeared to be frozen bodies imbedded into the front of a Mutant ship, floating in space. Outside the ship, were tethered Vultures looking at the damage.
"Seems that when the Thunderian ship was being chased by this ship, it didn't have the weapons to defend itself. The dead were loaded into the trash chute and fired at the ship. Given the velocity and the fact that they were already frozen, the bodies acted like missiles. It disabled the ship and the Thunderians were able to escape. We found the records of what happened while digging for records for the use for the fuel source on SG-17. They just noted the faces of the deceased before jettisoning them towards the nearest star. When they ran facial recognition, it seems Lo-ta's wife came up on the list of missing Thunderian Council members and personnel. From there, they quickly discovered who was left from her family and set about getting their hooks in them," she continued.
"I know everyone on the Council. I don't remember her," Lion-O said. He looked to his friends and they were just as confused.
"She might have been an aide. Either way, this was planned out before the attack on you guys last year," Mandora explained before zooming in on the picture and they noticed the date.
"It was their backup plan. They figured the first assault wouldn't work and they set things in motion for their retaliation," Panthro shook his head.
"Oh that they did. Not to worry though. We've got them right where we want them. The Space Council of Planets is seeing to that," she gave a wink.
"Well disaster averted in that sense. We'll be cleaning up this mess with the Avian Plague for a little while still," Lion-O relayed.
"Need any more assistance?" Mandora asked.
"We should be good. The scientists we rescued are helping and thankfully everyone is cooperating. We'll try to publish a list of the sick and the dead as soon as we can," he explained.
"All right, give me a shout if you need anything. Give my get well wishes to Pumyra," the Evil Chaser said.
"Will do. Thanks again," Lion-O responded. With that the call ended and Lion-O headed out of the room and toward the Med Bay while the rest of the ThunderCats dispersed to see if they were needed in the medical areas or out in the field.
To Be Continued…