THUNDERCATHIANS
Capítulo 21: The limit of traitors
Tygra and Cheetara reached the Mum-ra pyramid, Yuubi's outside defenses followed the thundercats' lead.
“Tygra, Cheetara” Yuubi received them, “you arrived in time for the mission.”
“I see you put cannons all over the outer structure of the pyramid, are those things safe?” wanted to know Tygra, who was nervous about the constant monitoring of the laser weapons.
“You don't have to worry, Tygra, the automatic defenses won't fire at anything I tell them to, their coverage covers all angles, nothing and nobody will be able to approach without my consent.”
“What's with the suit, Yuubi?” Cheetara asked, noting that Yuubi was not wearing his classic aristocratic military suit, but rather a kind of red and black sci-fi garment.
“It is a body armor, very good for hand-to-hand combat, as it offers excellent protection against stabs and small caliber firearms, and is also very flexible. In the light of recent developments, it is appropriate to use one of these.”
“I would like to wear one of those suits," said Tygra, looking at the garment that looked simple at first glance and offered no protection to its wearer.
Yuubi led the thundercats into the pyramid and stopped in front of a scanner that was entering a corridor.
“I'm sorry, but you must leave your weapons here," Yuubi told them, "and then you will pick them up at the end of the corridor, a mere protocol to be followed so as not to activate the inner defences of the pyramid I have just placed.”
So did the Thundercats and they went through the scanner. Like Lion-O's group, Yuubi stopped in front of a door and asistedroids from the air vents shot at the thundercats with paralyzing gas grenades. Yuubi was not affected as he put on a biohazard mask.
The Thundercts would have fallen but Cheetara ran in circles at such a speed that she expelled the gas from the corridor.
“Jubbi, what are you doing?!” Tygra shouted to him as he activated his invisibility device and Cheetara was already charging at the traitor.
Without saying a word and without any emotion on his covered face, Yuubi turned off the lights and then took off his mask, then put on a pair of infrared visors.
"We can both play this game, Tygra," Yuubi was thinking at lightning speed. The advantage of Tygra's invisibility no longer counted for anything.
Infrared scopes showed the cathian the location of Tygra, and Yuubi fired an electric stun gun at the thundercat.
“Tygra, what's going on?” Cheetara shouted, not being able to see anything because of the darkness and having heard her lover scream and then hearing something heavy fall to the ground.
The thundercat, not seeing anything, decided to run in circles, maybe this way she would stumble upon Yuubi and hopefully stop him.
Yubbi jumped up and grabbed a vent pipe and then shot one of the ship's water distributors.
Cheetara slipped on the liquid element and because of the speed it was going, she crashed into the door badly. She seemed to have been knocked unconscious.
"You can't fool me, woman," Yuubi thought, then discharged his electric gun on the wet floor. The thundercat convulsed in spasms of pain and fell truly unconscious.
“Activate lights," said the Cathian and ordered the asistedroids to put handcuffs on the hands and feet of the fallen thundercats, "didn't you thundercats know? The method for training large cats in circuses is based on electric shocks.”
Yuubi then ordered an asistedroid to drive the thundercats' vehicle into the pyramid.
.
.
“...Lion-O, Lion-O, wake up” the young king was listening to the words of one of his thundercats friends.
“...Bengali... You're all right, where are we!”
“In a cell in Avian," said Pumyra, "Panthro and Tara have already tried to get out of here, but neither the strength of the Cathiana nor Panthro's robotic arms can bend the bars.”
“The enemy seems to have learned from our strengths and weaknesses," Lynx-O said, "I hear someone coming.”
The prison had just been entered by none other than Vultureman, followed by Salamander and Rodent, the former lieutenant of Ratar-O and now the maximum leader of the rats.
“Traitors! This is how we are paid to have extended our goodwill to you," Lion-O spat, "we should have locked you up with Slithe, Monkian and Jackalman!”
Mumm-ra's three former followers looked at each other and laughed. Lion-O and the others were clenching their fists with impotence.
“Look, look, it's Lion-O!”
“Papa Lion-O!”
It was Minina and Minino who held Rauri's hands. The Assistedroid looked at the prisoners with an unemotional face and clouded, lifeless eyes.
“Well, I think you've had too much fun already," said Rauri, suddenly frowning, addressing the mummy's three ex-henchmen.
With a smile Rauri opened the cell of the thundercats, while Vultureman, Salamander and Rodent bowed to greet Lion-O.
“We regret the treatment offered," said Rodent, with his classic villain smile, "but it was necessary to deceive the real enemy.”
“...But what does this mean?” asked Lion-O in awe, as he was pulled by the garments by Minino and Minina, who called him Daddy and kept demanding his attention.
“Whoever planned all this betrayal is none other than Yuubi," said Salamander.
The whole group exploded in shouts demanding answers, but Lion-O ordered them to remain silent.
“To betray your enemies, you must first betray your friends... or vice versa," said Vultureman with a sinister smile, "basic rule of conspiracies and convenient alliances, that is, politics.”
“...I don't understand," said Lion-O.
“Let's put it this way," said Salamander, "I think we've found our limit. If you follow us, you'll understand better.”
The whole group followed the three "traitors" and arrived at a large room with monitors, Blue, Vultureman's personal secretary was present.
“Show them Blue” ordered Vultureman and the avian typed the console and showed on the screen the image of an object, it was a kind of blackish rhombus or tetrahedron.
“That's the weapon Mumm-ra used to destroy an entire solar system and create the star stones!” Lion-O shouted, recognizing the artifact of his visions within the book of omens.
“Yuubi told us that it was his plan that led to Mumm-ra's defeat," Rodent said with a sour gesture, "he also told us that it was his idea to make us presidents of our respective compatriots... I think I speak for others by saying that we don't like to play puppets.”
“Please, Rodent," Salamander interrupted, "in the end we were very happy with Yuubi's plan, we went from traitors and losers to presidents and with pinguin profits, I would say astronomical.”
“That's enough," said Vultureman. “Yuubi assured us that you thundercats without asistedroids, and other war machinery were defenseless. And with our betrayal towards you, he would be the victor.”
“Then, why...?”
“You don't see it, Lion-O!” said Vultureman in exasperation, “That crazy cat is planning to use Mumm-ra's weapon.... That's my limit and everyone else's. Of course, apart from horrifying me, Mumm-ra's brilliance is to be admired, any imbecile can destroy a solar system if he has the right weapon, but Mumm-ra, he not only destroyed his enemies, he turned his planets and people into gems that would later serve him. That really is the genius of an artist.”
Lion-O and the other adults trembled at the words of Vultureman.
“Anyway," Rodent said, "we're not sure if Yuubi will use that weapon against the Third Planet later, we may have to give up a lot of things as long as that doesn't happen and I apologize, but I'm used to being my own boss.”
“Same to me," Salamander cut him off, "and I like it a lot.”
The three "bad guys" explained to the group how Yuubi's betrayal was, how the Cathian by remote control controlled Rauri and had her kidnap Lion-Ore's little children.
“It was impossible to do this with all the asistedroids so Yuubi took them and all the weapons and logistics they could use against him," said Vultureman. “Yuubi is smart, but very young, he still hasn't learned that where there are some there are others, and my two comrades here and me, well, we're very good at that betrayal thing.”
“We couldn't help them with the asistedroids present," Rodent said, "so we had to let them capture you. Now's our chance to beat that lunatic.”
“Blue," ordered Vulture, "disable the outer defenses of Mum-ra's pyramid.”
“How will you do that?” Lion-O asked.
“The auto cannons that Yuubi installed cannot be deactivated," said Vultureman with his insane smile, "but these weapons depend on the power supply of the pyramid reactor.”
“And I bet Yuubi is still using the old password of Slithe," said Salamander, "a password that my former commander entrusted to me as his trustworthy man.”
The three guys laughed and the thundercats exchanged glances.
“I hope everything goes well," said Lion-O.
“Don't worry, Lion-O," Rauri reassured him, "look, now Minino and Minina accept you as their father, life can sometimes be hard, but if we have faith, everything will be fine.”
Rauri went to one of the windows and joined her hands in prayer and led her prayers to the summoner's pyramid.
.
.
In a dark reservoir inside Mumm-ra's fortress, a khaki bag moved, it seemed as if something was trying to get out of it.
With a burst of colorful sparks, Felina and Felino came out of the magic sack followed by Jessie and Sebastian, and cautiously left the warehouse.
“We have to help Tygra and Cheetara!” whispered Felina to her brother, the children had heard how the asistedroid confirmed to Yuubi by a fortress telecommunicator how they had taken the vehicle to the depot and how the Cathian instructed them to return to their work after talking about the capture of the two adults.
“How can we do this, there are surveillance cameras everywhere!” his brother replied.
“What if we used the ventilation ducts?” Jessie would suggest.
“Are you sure they'll hold our weight?” asked Sebastian.
“Don't worry," said Jessie, "I don't think we'll weigh that much.”
The children went into the ventilation ducts and they held their weight. In a ventilation vent, the boys saw that in a plastic container were the thundercats' weapons along with Tygra's invisibility device.
The adults were immobilized and viewed their situation pessimistically when the ventilation grille in their cell fell to the floor.
Felino was barely able to move through the open grille and, with unheard of flexibility, landed on the ground.
“Feline what...!”
The boy gestured for them to shut up and then, with the help of picklocks, proceeded to release the two adults.
“Jessie, Felina and Sebastian, come with me. I have your weapons and equipment here.”
The two adults, though displeased, nodded in silence.
Tygra activated his invisibility device and Cheetara caught the attention of the asistedroids. The androids watched as Felino wanted to enter through the air duct and entered the cell as they pointed their weapons at Cheetara.
Tygra shot at the asistedroids and the three thundercats came out of the cell and went to meet the other children.
Sensors at Mumm-ra's pyramid detected the presence of an intruder approaching the fortress and ordered the automatic defenses to open fire, but the cannon did not fire.
“Yuubi...”
CONTINUARÁ...
Author's final notes: that Vultureman, Salamander and Rodent, have a very twisted and self-indulgent view of life, don't they?
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