What am I looking at here?" Lion-O asked wearily. No matter how many times he blinked, he couldn't force his eyes to make sense of a blueprint that should have made sense.

"Environmental control system," Ro-Bear Bethany told him, her pink cheeks and pink ear flower as fresh as the day he'd met her.

A far cry from how he felt, with eyelids that weighed ten pounds each. If he couldn't get his brain to shut up and let him sleep one of these nights, he was going to drop dead. There were just so many problems . . .

Bethany pointed with a green-furred paw, her blunt metal claw tapping the blueprint. "Environmental control should be improved by a supplementary air supply system due to the higher altitudes at which Prefect Horus wishes to fly Avista City, and the slightly higher bubble pod pressure resulting."

Lion-O's tired brain chugged, processing what he'd heard. "He wants to take the city higher?"

"Yes," Bethany buzzed.

"Why?" he asked stupidly. Apparently, nothing was going to make sense today.

"It is, perhaps, a disappointment to have our friends fly so far out of our reach," Anet said, and then, at Lion-O's snort, he smiled and held up a gray-nailed finger, "but not something at which we should wonder. Our feathery friends expound enlightenment. I can think of no better environment than a city in the clouds for this actualization. True enlightenment comes through harmony, which means achieving self-improvement without hurting others and contributing to the happiness of many."

"Yeah, you're right. Their leaving will contribute to the happiness of many," Lion-O said into his fist. He grinned up at the enormous, often bewildered elephant leader, whose fan-like ears waved off insects in the heat.

Anet smiled happily back at him.

"If that's what they want, then that's what we should do. So, what's the problem, Bethany?" Lion-O asked, for the little berbil had tugged on his baggy trouser leg.

"Conditions not optimal for work," she said, blue-lit mouth blinking with each canned word. Her head swiveled toward the east. "We are under attack."

"What?"

The missiles appeared out of nowhere, dropping a few feet before their thrusters kicked on and sent them screaming into the ramshackle tent city. Dogs, hardened by years in The Pit, rushed at the suddenly heaving mass of animals, snapping sharp teeth. Tents crumpled, run down and trampled by panicked feet, which also kicked over folding tables, beds, and chairs to trip those following. The dogs raced after the fleeing birds, barking, forcing them to bunch together.

Too late, Lion-O realized his mistake. He had not put any extra defenses in place because he had focused on repairing the flying city as quickly as possible. He had assumed that Mumm-Ra would sit at home, content to play with his new Stone for longer. He had relied on the birds' technology to combat Mumm-Ra's. His wishful thinking had left everyone wide open to attack. Again.

"Dobo!" he bellowed. He pulled the Sword of Omens from the Gauntlet, extending the gleaming blade in the same movement. "Where are you?"

"Here." The tall doberman materialized out of a cloud of dust, shaking his head as if to rid his ears of water. Ocher dirt coated his sleek fur. He held his scimitar in one hand, and he, too, looked to the east. He coughed. "What do you make of this? There's nothing there!"

"Mumm-Ra," Lion-O growled. The Sword keened.

Dobo smirked. "With what army?"

Anet studied the sandy plain. The air shimmered and warped like giant, inflating soap bubbles. When they popped, he pointed with his bough-sized walking stick. "That one."

Zipcraft appeared from the distortions and shot by overhead, readying their missiles for another attack. In the fore, a sky cutter larger than the others led the charge. Its graceful wings sliced the air. Its nose mimicked the hooked beak of a scavenger. Its hyper-shiny, flawless black paint blinded them when the sunlight slid over it. Lion-O knew exactly who was piloting that craft.

Meanwhile, bursting through the weird soap-bubble effect, hovercraft deck cannons fired upon the fleeing birds, while warmechs formed a perimeter to prevent escape. Lion-O flinched under the sudden stab of memory, of his father's city imploding from the inside out. Of the clerics, crushed between a mech army and Thundera's high white wall. Of Mumm-Ra, posing as Panthro, murdering his father.

His hand tightened on the Sword's grip, and he looked down at it, the elegant silver crossguard, the bloodred Eye of Thundera. He had been entrusted with the lives contained within the Sword by his father, to protect the lives of Third Earth. He couldn't let anyone else die.

The second wave of missiles descended and exploded, throwing the three animal leaders to the ground. The zipcraft seemed intent on driving the birds away from Avista, into the path of the slower, oncoming hovercraft. To do what? Capture them? Enslave them? Kill them?

Surely, even Vultaire wasn't such a monster.

Lion-O lay full-length in the dirt. While small rocks and debris rained down on him, he spoke quickly. "You have to call the dogs back, Dobo. Rally the ravenmen. The birds are used to the sight of them. They will help you get everyone back inside the city."

"On it. But I want blood, Lion-O," Dobo said.

"You'll have it," Lion-O promised him.

They exchanged a determined glance, acknowledging that this alliance, formed and held until repairs to the flying city were complete, was now over, but that the dogs and the cats would continue to work together going forward. No longer would the peoples of Third Earth isolate themselves, continuing their ancestors' war. No longer would they subject themselves to hatred and prejudice, not if Lion-O and Dobo had anything to say about it.

In unison, they pushed themselves to their feet. Dobo stuck his fingers between his teeth and whistled. The sharp sound caused the canine gladiators to snap to attention. He bounded off, long legs eating up the distance until the rising dust clouds obscured him.

"Anet!" Lion-O shouted next.

"I am all right, Lion-O," the elephant assured him. His small eyes, couched in incredibly wrinkled skin, tracked the perfect flying V of the zipcraft with a calculating expression. "The elephants are ready to defend our friends once more."

"Good." Lion-O glanced around, sizing up the situation. "We'll need a route for our people to withdraw. See what you can do about those mechs."

"Gladly." Anet strode off, his orange robes easily visible in the chaos, brandishing his walking stick. Aburn met him after a few strides, the younger elephant's slightly smoother face murderous. One by one, their brothers joined them, wielding building materials like weapons, gathering speed, until they intersected the line of mechs with a crash that shook the ground. Then the elephants were through, swinging around for another charge, ivory tusks and massive fists and trumpeting yells lifting in challenge.

WilyKit, as Lion-O had counted on, was never far from her usually peaceable friends. She and her brother surfed low through the melee on their boards, dropping handheld artillery onto the hovercraft from above, skillfully dodging the shots fired up at them. Glittery, multi-colored explosions engulfed the scene.

Three problems taken care of. Lion-O pitied the animals caught within an acre of the twins' patented Stinky Sticky Bombs, including the lizards bailing from their gummed-up mechs. The Sword sang in his hand, and he turned. Felline and Ro-Bear Bob had arrived. They helped a dazed Bethany onto her short legs.

"Invisibility shields. New radio spectrum allocation. Stealth dampeners. They're making good use of the Tech Stone," Felline said angrily by way of greeting. She grimaced as more explosions took out a whole section of the city's understructure, her ears folded flat to her pinned-up hair. Her goggles dangled from around her neck. "They're targeting the thundrilium thrusters. Panthro and Tygra have gone to protect them."

"Good. They've put too much work into those systems to let the lizards destroy them now," Lion-O said. "Which means we need to get the city into the air."

"Can you do it?" Felline asked their little friends.

"Affirmative, Ro-Cat Felline," the two berbils chorused. They rolled up, preparing to dash through the chaos.

"Ah-ah-ah, not so fast, bears," a high voice giggled.

An energy beam shot between the two cats, just missing Bob and sending him soaring into the air. Bethany changed direction on a pin and unfolded to catch him. Immediately, the two berbils rolled up again and fled, squeaking with each bounce.

"Leave them alone, Kaynar!" Felline shrieked, surprising Lion-O. She whipped her gunblade from its thigh holster and fired back.

"Whoopsie!" the jackalman simpered. He turned his snake-headed hovercraft so that her shots ricocheted off the underside. "Temper, temper, little kitty. Don't worry, I'll play with you, too."

He licked his chops. Felline hissed at him, her long, thick tail lashing.

Lion-O caught a whiff of sweat and carrion behind him and brought the Sword up just in time to block Addicus's spiked mace before it caved in his skull.

"Time for some payback," the white-maned monkey said. He shoved his mace against the Sword so that Lion-O strained not to give ground. "You beat us good in the sky. Now it's time to beat you."

"And have a little snack," Kaynar added. His tasseled ears flicked playfully. "I'm feeling peckish."

Addicus grinned, flat pink lips peeling away from teeth like blocks. "I ate six birds before they caught me and threw me off the Cliffs of Silence," he bragged, his foul breath wafting into Lion-O's face, his small eyes disconcertingly focused. "I like birds, but I've never tried a cat. Wonder what you taste like."

"Chicken," Kaynar told him. Both generals went off in gales of laughter, one high and screechy, the other low and guttural.

"Just try it!" Cheetara shouted. She streaked onto the scene in a blur of sun-yellow. Too fast to follow, she whacked Addicus under his chin, snapping his head back and freeing Lion-O, and then leaped aboard the hovercraft and walloped Kaynar across the kneecaps. She skidded to a stop next to Felline, tall and slender and strong. Her bo staff whistled through the air.

The jackalman hopped in circles, clutching one foot. Then he squealed when he accidentally hopped off the hovercraft. He landed in the dirt with an audible grunt. A second passed.

His whimper floated weakly from the rising dust cloud. ". . . Ow."

Addicus picked himself up, rubbing his chin. Then he was up and charging. Cheetara blurred away, but Felline wasn't quick enough. One huge, pink hand closed around her leg, engulfing it from ankle to mid-thigh. Addicus lifted her high and whipped her back down, slamming her into the ground. Her gunblade flew one way, the pieces of her goggles another. When the monkey straightened to his full height with a satisfied smirk, she lay in a little crater, her eyes closed, her shell-pink lips parted between the black tear lines that bracketed her mouth.

"Felline!" Lion-O called.

She didn't react. She lay so still, so small, that he couldn't tell if she was breathing.

He started toward her, but Kaynar got in his way.

"Aw, is that one your main squeeze now?" Kaynar whirled his spear around. A tassel danced at the end, beneath the blade. It distracted Lion-O enough that he didn't block it in time, and the spear shaft punched him in the side. Kaynar smoothed his goatee, studying Lion-O's expression, and then he gave a delighted little heehee! that made his broad shoulders shake. "Pumyra's not going to like that," he said with relish.

Lion-O's fist smashed into Kaynar's nose.

Cheetara jumped between Felline and Addicus. She parried Addicus's mace with her staff, and then they commenced trading blows with furious speed. In a few seconds, Cheetara had the mutant monkey furiously spinning, boulderlike muscles bunching, arms windmilling, as he tried to land a solid hit and fend off her quicker strikes in turn.

"Stay still!" Addicus roared. His mace impacted the ground like a pile driver.

"Only if you stay down!" Cheetara cracked the staff into his round pink ear, knocking his horned helmet askew, half blinding him and disrupting his equilibrium. She streaked away before his fist closed on her. He dropped to one knee, obviously trying to keep the world in focus.

The jackalman stumbled back, blood flying between the fingers he pressed to his short muzzle. Pure, red rage washed across Lion-O's vision and coated his tongue with the tang of metal. He tried to breathe through the agonizing fire that lit up his insides at the mention of Pumyra. His awareness shrank until he could no longer hear the pandemonium erupting all around him. Dobo and the dogs barking and yelping, Anet and the elephants trumpeting, the tantalizing notes of Kit's flupe and the whizz of WilyKat's flink, the cries of frightened birds, even the fight between Cheetara and Addicus—he couldn't spare a thought for any of them. The Sword sang to his fury as he whipped it in front of Kaynar's face. He struck again, keeping the taller animal off balance until he managed to land a kick in Kaynar's middle that sent him over backward. Kaynar lost his hold on his spear and Lion-O jumped to take advantage. He put his foot on his foe's furry chest, preventing him from getting back up.

"I don't have time to play with you," he rasped. He thrust the Sword point-first into the ground and leaned in close. "Why are you here, Kaynar?"

Kaynar watched a few of his fiery orange hairs float on the dusty air, severed by the Sword, whose edge quivered less than an inch from his cheek. His manic grin flashed on and then off again like a blowing lightbulb.

"We're here to kill you," he said clearly and with surprising candor. "Mumm-Ra wants you dead."

"Tell me something I don't know," Lion-O muttered. He punched the jackalman again. As Kaynar chuckled through the dirty-nailed hand he pressed over his face, Lion-O shouted, "You're a distraction! What's the real reason?"

"Ooo! Ooo!" Addicus, who was lying on his stomach while Cheetara produced a coil of fiber optic cable and rapidly tied his limbs together, spat out a mouthful of dirt and glared at his partner. "Don't tell him."

"Tell?" Kaynar snickered into his palm. "Why on Third Earth would I tell? I hate this guy. He has no sense of humor."

"I watch you," Addicus grunted. He struggled, but Cheetara had trussed his arms and legs too tightly. "You don't like the newcomers."

Kaynar dropped his hand and rolled his red-and-yellow eyes. "No, pudding-brain, I don't like the newcomers," he sneered. He licked the blood from his goatee and grinned up at Lion-O. "We've been replaced. Demoted. Reduced to sideshow freaks. We're out of favor, see, for failing to retrieve the War Stone."

Lion-O backed off, eyeing Mumm-Ra's giggling general while Cheetara bound him, too, with thick cables. "Replaced, huh? You should choose your allies more carefully."

Kaynar pretended to vomit, so convincingly that Cheetara disappeared and reappeared at Lion-O's side, her pretty face screwed up in disgust.

"Spare me," the jackalman said, and then he laughed.

He was still laughing when the hovercraft, a rifle without its charge pack propped against the yoke, carried him and Addicus away from Avista City.

A/N: In spite of some super frustrating internet issues, I present you the next update! I really, really love writing Kaynar and Addicus. I loved their new versions so much. I'm doing my best, dear readers, and I hope you like it!

Reviewer Thanks! Lionessa, KelseyAlicia, St4r Hunter, SAK-96, Atea1793, and LunaStone115. Each review is a little bit of brightness in my day, and I LOVE them! Thank you!

Forever yours,

Anne