Chapter 25

The ThunderCats had opened fire on the ship heading through their atmosphere and down toward the Lair. The ship returned fire, striking the Lair, shaking the building. A shot from the mountain camp struck the ship and Lion-O watched on the monitors as a secondary explosion erupted through the Mutant war bird.

"What's going on?" Cheetara asked as she stopped firing, noticing Lion-O had done the same. A shot came up from the lower weapons outside the Lair, striking the underbelly of the intruder's ship. The explosion completely disabled the ship, and it began careening toward the ground.

"Cease fire!" Lion-O shouted through the radio.

"But we've got them on the ropes!" It was Ben-Gali on the other end. The white tiger wanted to finish them off.

"Panthro! Get your crew out of there! The ship is heading for the moat!" Lion-O barked on the radio. He got no response, but the Sword distracted him. The lion whipped out the weapon and ordered,

"Sword of Omens give me Sight Beyond Sight!" Cheetara watched the monitors as her husband received news he had not been hoping for.

"Rattigan is on that ship!" Lion-O told her as they watched the damaged ship crash in front of the moat. The ground heaved up and earth flew in every direction as the nose of the ship dug into the ground. It missed Panthro, the ThunderKittens, and Esen by only a few feet. It did not miss one of the anti-aircraft laser blaster guns and the anti-ground laser blaster, destroying them. The ship continued to push through the earth until it gave way at the edge of the moat.

"Everyone converge on the ship!" Lion-O ordered through the radio.

"Call up to the Evil Chasers. Tell them what is going on and see what they have in mind," he told his wife. Cheetara nodded and quickly called up to the other ships. Lion-O raced out the door, Slythe, Arzu, Ay?egül, were right on his tail coming down the hallway.

"Be prepared for anything. We don't know how many survivors are in there or what weapons they have," Slythe said.

"That's what I'm afraid of. Do those things have a self-destruct? It's close enough to the Lair that it makes me nervous," the lion told them.

"They didn't use to…" Arzu let the thought hang there. Being the Colonel's ship, there was no way to tell if Rattigan didn't add a few things to his personal warship. The four approached the Lair's front door and opened it. No one fired at them, so they cautiously stuck to the walls of the Cat's Paws, trying to not give away their position. The location of the Mutant ship made trying to get to the drawbridge difficult. Panthro, the Kittens, and Esen were stuck until the threat was neutralized. Of course their location might allow for a two-pronged assault.

Just then another explosion rocked the ship. The collision with the ground had seemingly put out most of the fires but apparently not all of them inside the ship. A hatch popped open and Lion-O watched as a four Mutants clambered out, fire licking at their heels.

"Freeze!" Lion-O barked. They looked up, almost like they were surprised.

"Do as he says!" Slythe ordered. They were really confused now but they did not listen. They jumped off the burning ship and used it for cover.

"He said freeze!" They could hear Panthro's voice from the side of the ship. No one could see what was going on though from where they were standing – the crashed ship blocked them.

"That thing is going to blow! Shoot me all you want but I'm not hanging around!" One of the Mutants shouted.

"Where is Rattigan?!" The panther demanded.

"I don't know," that was a different Mutant. Another small explosion rocked the ship and Lion-O yelled,

"Get back!" The group of four headed for the front door and the others tried to run for cover toward the trees. There was a rumbling and then the ship blew up.

To Be Continued…