FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder sat at his desk, reading his afternoon email. He sighed. Just the usual, people wanting him to investigate UFO sightings, paranormal activity, and governmental conspiracies. He changed screens to check on his official workload to see what he and his partner Dana Scully could go about investigating for the rest of the day, when Scully came in.

"Hi Mulder. So what’s on the agenda for the rest of today? Has Skinner dropped anything on our desks, or are we going to investigate some of our backlogged cases?" Scully asked him. She hoped it wasn’t anything like the case they had wrapped up earlier that day, involving a very disturbed psychic serial killer who claimed aliens told him to kill.

"I haven’t heard anything yet," he replied. "How do you feel about aliens in Alabama?"

Scully groaned. "No more aliens, Mulder. Aside from what we finished today, we’ve investigated three UFO sightings this week and none were verifiable."

"Phantoms in Fargo?"

Scully just gave Mulder her famous look.

"What about this?" the other agent pressed, pointing to the screen. "Some cop from Toronto claims he thinks one of his colleagues is a vampire. That could be interesting." Mulder suggested.

"Not in our jurisdiction and a completely absurd scenario anyway," Scully remarked. "A vampire cop? Come on Mulder, even you couldn’t buy that one!"

"Hard at work, I see," Assistant Director Walter Skinner greeted his two agents as he walked into the basement office holding a folder. "Mulder, Scully, I have a top-priority assignment for you. This was on my desk when I came back from lunch, with an urgent investigation request. It’s a little strange, but you’re used to that by now," Skinner said as he handed Mulder the folder.

"What is it, Sir?" Scully asked, as Mulder started thumbing through it.

"Apparently some kids in a rural Pennsylvania town were happily watching cartoon network at 4:08 p.m. after school yesterday when the characters on the show they were watching leapt from the TV and entered our dimension, trashed the house, and caused a chaotic uproar in the town. Some of the show’s heroes followed, and now there are several cartoon characters at large running amok in Pennsylvania," Skinner stated matter-of-factly.

Scully burst out laughing. "What?"

"Don’t laugh, Scully, it’s true," Mulder said, far more seriously than someone who had just heard a statement like that should have.

"Oh come on, fictional animated characters coming to life from a television set? Are you sure it was cartoon network they were watching and not the sci-fi channel?" Scully argued, still not sure if this was Skinner’s weird idea of a joke.

"According to this file, the cartoon’s villains injured two of the kids watching the program, and then trashed their house before they left, went down the street, destroyed the town’s only traffic light, and harassed three pedestrians and a poodle before vanishing into the woods. A few minutes after the villains first appeared the cartoon heroes came out of the set as the villains had, said they would try to stop them, and ran after them. The cartoon in question has been specified as the animated program ‘Thundercats’ which ran on the air in original episodes from 1985-1988, and then recently began being re-broadcast by cartoon network in their ‘Toonami’ lineup." Mulder informed Scully, reading from the file.

"‘Thundercats’? Wasn’t that the one with that cat guy who had big red hair and yelled ‘Thundercats—Ho!’ and shot bad guys with some all-powerful sword or something?" Scully asked with an incredulous frown.

Mulder grinned. "Scully, I never realized you were a fan of cartoons."

"Some of my college roommates watched that show," Scully answered, frowning at Mulder’s obvious amusement before she turned to Skinner. "Sir, you’re not seriously going to send us to investigate this?"

"This was given top priority by my superiors, and they want you to investigate it immediately," Skinner said with a shrug. "I know it sounds farfetched, but orders are orders, and I have to pass them on to you."

Scully took the file from Mulder and looked through it. "See the pictures of the damage those cartoon villains did? Pretty intense, huh?" Mulder commented.

"It’s much more likely that these kids threw a party, trashed their own house, dressed up in costume and terrorized the town, possibly under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol, and then made up this story as some sort of cover," Scully replied, clearly not convinced.

"Who would make up something that bizarre, taking drugs or not?" Mulder argued. "Anyway, two of the kids were injured by these guys themselves. One got a mild concussion from being hit as a coffee table flew by after one of the cartoon villains shot it with an anti-gravity ray, and another got frostbite after another villain spit icy air on him. How could they have done that themselves?" he asked her. When she didn’t have an immediate answer, he pressed on. "Come on, there’s gotta be something to this. Let’s check it out! Besides, I like that show..."

Scully sighed and began to gather her things. "Why am I not surprised?"

Several hours later Mulder and Scully were driving along a windy rural road in what seemed like the middle of nowhere, on the way to the house where the cartoon had supposedly come to life. Darkness had fallen, and Mulder was having a little trouble navigating the roads between unexpected curves and the lack of streetlights, even though there was a full moon to add extra light. Unfortunately all it seemed to do was make the area look eerie.

"So we’re really supposed to believe that Mumm-Ra came to life and trashed a house out in the middle of nowhere... and people are spending tax dollars so we can look into this." Scully shook her head in disbelief.

"Not Mumm-Ra, actually it’s the Lunatacs," Mulder answered casually. Scully gave him the look again, and Mulder glanced up for a second and caught her expression. "Well it was," he said defensively. "Mumm-Ra wasn’t in this particular episode. Besides, how do you know who Mumm-Ra is anyway?" Mulder asked.

"I told you, I was subjected to this show for hours upon end in college when my roommates watched it!"

"And you, of course, never paid attention..." the other agent joked.

"Not voluntarily, I was usually studying," she retorted.

"Sure you were," he teased.

"Mulder just keep your eyes on the—LOOK OUT!" Scully cut herself off as the headlights shone on several strange-looking figures standing in the road that Mulder hadn’t noticed because he was too busy teasing her.

Mulder swore and swerved the vehicle directly into a tree. There was a loud crash, and steam could be seen coming out from beneath the dented hood. Mulder sighed and threw his head back in annoyance. "Oh great, we destroyed another rental car. Lariat isn’t going to let us anywhere near a vehicle again for another six months," he grumbled. He glanced over at Scully. "Scully, are you ok?"

"Yeah, I’m fine," she muttered. "Let me call Triple A on my cell phone." Scully pulled the phone out and turned it on. She held it up, preparing to dial, when she saw something that never seemed to happen to her on any other cases—no reception! "What do you mean, ‘no service’?" she said angrily to the phone.

"Hey, that never happens to us!" exclaimed an outraged Mulder. "We get cell phone reception everywhere—in the New Mexico desert miles from everything but a Navajo reservation, that hick town where Chaco Chicken was, even by those abandoned missile silos in North Dakota! Why not here?" he demanded, trying his phone and getting the same response—"no service".

"Let’s get out and walk around, there’s got to be a place we can stand where we can at least get one bar or so of reception," Scully suggested, and the pair of agents got out of the car, holding up their cell phones hoping to get at least a little reception if they found the right spot.

"Don’t wander too far, it would be real easy to get lost and separated in these woods!" Mulder called out, as the two walked around, inadvertently getting farther apart from one another.

Scully walked off the road into the woods, wondering how she’d gotten talked into this mess, when she suddenly she heard a voice with a funny accent.

"Look Luna, another one of those weird humans."

Scully looked up and rubbed her eyes, hoping it would make them focus and not see what she currently observed standing in front of her—a short, round, light-skinned creature with a purple mohawk, horns, and a crescent moon on it’s forehead, wearing a metal outfit and holding a huge gun. "What the hell...?" the startled agent mumbled as she looked around in utter disbelief. There were more of the odd creatures, all with horns and moons on their foreheads! There was a huge, muscular being with pale skin and glowing red eyes, a woman with blue skin and white hair wearing a cape, a tall balding one with longish hair falling around his shoulders holding some kind of club with a glowing crystal on the end, and a humongous white creature on all fours with a long face and long horns, being ridden by a little female being with out-of-control white and purple striped hair, holding a riding crop. "Am I dreaming?" Scully asked, seriously doubting her sanity.

"No, but you have gotten in our way," the small female, who Scully figured was the one named Luna, said in an irritating high-pitched voice.

"Who are you?" Scully gasped, still in shock.

"We’re the Lunatacs," answered the large red-eyed one.

A voice broke in from behind. "And you’re under arrest! Freeze, Federal Agent!" Fox Mulder called out as he waved his gun at them. "Scully, did they hurt you?" he asked, casting his redheaded partner a concerned look.

"No, I’m fine," she answered breathlessly, still trying to comprehend what she was seeing.

"Ok, all of you, put your hands up! You’re under arrest for assault, vandalism, and threatening a federal agent!" Mulder announced.

The Lunatacs only laughed at his threat. "Who’s this geek? He’s even more ridiculous than Mandora!" the short round one said.

"And about as threatening as a Berbil," the tall one sneered.

"I don’t know who he thinks he is," the blue woman rasped, "but he’s a popsicle now." She leaned forward, and exhaled what appeared to be snow or frost. Immediately Fox Mulder was frozen solid, encased in ice, still holding out his frozen gun.

"MULDER!" Scully screamed, running for her frozen partner.

"Good work, Chilla," Luna said to her teammate. "But don’t let the other one get away! Alluro, TugMug, RedEye, get her! We’ll take her as a hostage! We could use a human slave to our benefit in this new dimension," she shrieked, grinning wickedly.

Scully started to run, but the short one, who she now recognized, or remembered—flashes of that 80’s cartoon these guys seemed to be straight out of were coming back to her—as TugMug, jumped above her and blocked her path. "Goin’ somewhere?" the rotund creature sneered.

"Of course she isn’t, are you?" came another voice, from the opposite side. Scully turned and saw it belonged to the tall one she somehow remembered as being named Alluro. He lifted his glowing club, dislodging the crystal ball and casting it to hover over her head. A beautiful bluish light filtered down upon Scully. "Give up, girl. You cannot win, cannot fight us or escape from us. You are a helpless human, no match for powerful beings like us. You will do as I say and come with us peacefully."

All of a sudden, Scully felt like her brain was spinning. A glazed look filled her eyes as she bathed in the globe’s light. "Yes, I will come with you," she mumbled, trance-like, and walked back over towards the Lunatacs.

"Search her!" Luna ordered. Chilla grabbed Scully roughly and frisked her. She pulled out her ID and badge, took her cell phone from her hands, removed her gun, and then them all to Luna. The tiny leader first looked at the gun. "Hmph. Primitive weapon," she grumbled, and promptly tossed it aside. "But what is this?" she asked, examining the cell phone.

"Looks like some kind of communicator," RedEye said, unimpressed by the human technology.

"More useless junk," Luna snorted. She dropped it on the ground, and then looked at the badge and ID. "Now what’s this? ‘FBI Special Agent Dana Scully’. I suppose she’s some sort of law enforcement person," she mused. "Well she’s our slave now. Alluro, have her follow us. We still have more chaos to create in our new dimension, and we can’t have any nosy humans spoiling our fun!"

"Whatever you say, Luna," Alluro said smoothly, rolling his eyes slightly at his troll-like leader’s orders. He turned to Scully, who was still under his trance. "You will follow us," he ordered her sternly. Scully nodded obediently, and walked with them. The group of Lunatacs and their hostage headed back down the road.

Not far away, the Thundercats were in the local woods as well, wandering around looking for the Lunatacs, hoping to stop their evil mayhem. They weren’t having much luck, however, and they had only managed to get themselves lost in the woods thus far.

"Boy, this dimension bites!" WilyKat exclaimed. Trees and a lack of civilization in the pitch dark were hardly impressive.

"Yeah, and we don’t even have our spaceboards," his sister WilyKit added, equally unenthused.

"We can’t waste time playing around anyway," Panthro said with rising annoyance. "We have to find the Lunatacs before they terrorize this dimension."

Cheetara sighed. "I just wish we had some idea where they—or we, for that matter—are."

"It appears we’re on a planet just like Third Earth, only from what we’ve seen so far, it’s primarily populated by a race of humans with somewhat advanced technological knowledge above the ones we’re used to dealing with back on Third Earth," Lion-O stated. Suddenly the Eye of Thundera growled, alerting him to something of importance. "The sword!" Lion-O exclaimed. "Someone’s in trouble!" The Thundercat Lord withdrew the blade from the claw shield and held the sword’s handle up to his eyes so he could stare through the curled eyeholes. "Sword of Omens, give me sight beyond sight," he commanded. A vision of Fox Mulder as an ice statue took shape. "Great Jaga," he gasped, "Chilla’s frozen one of the humans solid right here in these woods!"

"Rrrowl, we’ve got to find him and save him!" Bengali exclaimed.

The Thundercats split up for a short distance while and spread out around the woods, investigating the area and trying to find any trace of the mysterious frozen human. Suddenly Snarf called out. "Snarf, snarf, I found him! Look! There’s a frozen guy over here!" Within seconds, all the Thundercats came running over and found the iced Mulder right where Chilla had frozen him. Snarf held up Scully’s cell phone, which was glowing in the dark. Ironically enough, the spot had perfect reception. "Rowr, I saw this thing glowing and I came to see what it was, and there he was, snarf snarf."

"We must get him out of there right away," Tygra said worriedly. "This is a different dimension, and there’s no telling what effects Chilla’s ice might have on him."

"Stand back," Lion-O ordered, as he pointed his sword at the frozen Mulder. He let out a mighty shout of "HOOOOO!" and blasted the ice off Mulder with the Sword of Omens in a single, brilliant blast. The dazed Fox Mulder came back to life, shivering, and dropped his gun from the shock of being frozen and then thawed so suddenly—but surprisingly, with no other ill effects. Even the lack of oxygen for several minutes had not even affected him somehow, but that was a mystery to ponder another time.

"Where’d they go?" the disoriented agent wondered aloud, scanning the area wildly as he recovered his weapon.

Cheetara put her arms around his shoulder. "Are you all right, sir?"

The sudden gesture caught Mulder by surprise, as he realized he was surrounded by people who had helped him. Only… they weren’t people, he realized, on second look in the moonlight. "Who are—wait, you’re the Thundercats!" he exclaimed, his eyes wide with shock and wonder. They nodded, and a strange grin broke out over his features. "Wow, it’s true, you actually came out of the TV!" Mulder declared excitedly. Not only had he been proven right, but he was doing something theoretically impossible, meeting fictional characters in the flesh… fictional characters he knew from his secret addiction to a cartoon from a decade past. And best of all, he’d been proven right, which he definitely want to boast to Scully about. "Scully, you—" he started, only to have the terrible details of his run-in with the Lunatacs flood his memory as the shock of seeing the Thundercats and his disorientation from being frozen wore off. "Oh no, Scully! I was saving Scully from the Lunatacs but now they’re all vanished! Where did they go?"

WilyKat eyed the human curiously. "Wow, Chilla froze your butt but good."

His words struck a note of alarm in the others. "You say the Lunatacs have one of your friends?" Pumyra asked.

"Yeah, my partner, Scully," Mulder said with a worried nod. "She and I were investigating your case—you know, when you came out of the TV and all, but I saw something in the road and hit a tree with the car, and we were trying to get our phones to work to call Triple A and then I heard Scully talking to someone and I saw the Lunatacs had her surrounded and—" Mulder babbled incoherently, recounting the events in a rush.

"Wait, slow down, we don’t understand you!" Bengali growled.

"I do," Lynx-O interrupted. "My acute hearing was able to hear every word. Our friend here was in some sort of vehicular accident and he and his partner were attempting to use their phones—I assume they are some form of communication devices—to call someone to aid them. He and his partner were apparently doing some form of investigation into our appearance in this dimension."

"Yeah, that’s what I said," Mulder said impatiently. "So wow, I’m really talking to the Thundercats..."He turned to each of them and studied their faces. "Lion-O, the Lord of the Thundercats, Cheetara, Tygra, Panthro, WilyKit, WilyKat, Bengali, Pumyra, Lynx-O, Snarf... wow, there’s almost the whole cast. Where’s Snarfer?" he questioned.

"He wasn’t with us when we got sucked into this dimension. Wait—how do you know who we are?" Tygra inquired suspiciously.

"I’m an FBI agent. It’s my job to investigate and know these things. Besides, I used to watch your show all the time."

"Our show? What?" a confused WilyKit asked.

"That box we all came out of! It must be some form of dimensional gateway, and they can see into our dimension with it!" Panthro exclaimed. "Amazing technology, especially for such a primitive race. I’ve got to examine it once we stop those Lunatacs."

"Yes, speaking of which, do you know where the Lunatacs were going?" Lion-O questioned Mulder.

"They froze me and must’ve taken Scully with them. We have to find them!" Mulder exclaimed.

"By the way, what’s your name?" Cheetara asked Mulder. "You know us, but we don’t know you."

"Oh, right," he replied with a sheepish grin. "My name is Fox Mulder. I’m a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigations."

"Ok, Agent Mulder, let’s find your partner, Scully," Lion-O said determinedly. Mulder and the Thundercats continued into the woods, hot on the Lunatacs’ trail.

As Mulder and the Thundercats searched the area for Scully and the Lunatacs, a black and silent unmarked helicopter hovered above the woods in the exact spot where Scully’s cell phone was still on and blinking, forgotten on the ground. The pilot, a young military officer, spoke to his passenger. "Here it is. This is where we traced the location of Agent Scully’s cell phone. Too bad Mulder shut his off, because here is where her phone is, and there’s nobody in the area." He frowned. "And sir, if you don’t mind, could you please direct your cigarette smoke out the window?"

"We’ll keep searching," Cancer Man replied gruffly. He finished his cigarette, lighting another with the end of the dying one, snuffed out the butt, and dropped it out the window as the craft advanced in another direction while he puffed on the new one, blowing the smoke out the window this time. The cigarette butt landed on the windy road in the woods below.

The Lunatacs and Scully found the road again, and continued walking down it. Before long, a van was driving up the road where they were walking. "Stop that vehicle!" Luna ordered, and the Lunatacs stood in the road, blocking its path as they had done earlier to Mulder and Scully. Seeing the freakish creatures in the headlights, the driver slammed on the brakes and watched in terror. "Let’s take his vehicle for a ride," Luna laughed wickedly. TugMug and RedEye advanced towards the van menacingly, preparing to nuke the driver with their weapons.

"Wait a second!" Alluro interrupted. "We can avoid a fight that might damage our transportation if we use Agent Scully to take his vehicle," the hypnotist suggested. Luna nodded in agreement, so Alluro turned to Scully and reinforced his hypnotic hold on her. "You will tell him we need his vehicle for governmental purposes and order him to turn it over to us."

The dazed look of his thrall filled her eyes again. "Yes, Master Alluro, I will get the van for you," she replied numbly, and walked over to the driver’s door.

Chilla rolled her eyes as Scully walked away. "Master Alluro?" she snorted in disgust. "Does your ego know no bounds?"

Alluro only grinned. "Jealous?"

Meanwhile, the driver rolled down the window slightly as Scully approached, still petrified from the sight of the advancing RedEye and TugMug. The hypnotized agent held up her badge. "Federal Agent—I need your vehicle for an urgent investigative matter. Refusal to cooperate will result in charges of obstruction of justice," she told the driver in a commanding voice.

The driver wasn’t about to put up an argument. "Lady, as long as you and your freakshow buddies don’t hurt me, you can have whatever you want!" he whimpered and leapt from the van, giving one last terrified look as he ran screaming into the woods. Once he was gone, Scully turned to Alluro, as if awaiting another order.

"Good work, slave," Alluro said, patting Scully on the head as he and the other Lunatacs joined her at the van side.

"I’ll drive," Chilla announced, and jumped into the driver’s seat. RedEye climbed into the passenger seat next to her. The other Lunatacs and Scully climbed into the back. "Let’s get out of this hick town and find some real action!" Chilla rasped, stepping on the gas pedal. Tires squealed as she turned the van around recklessly, sideswiping the embankments on the sides of the road, and peeling out at record speed down the country road.

RedEye grimaced as he was thrown against the dashboard. "No wonder Mandora gave you a ticket! Your driving sucks!" he shouted, just as Chilla hit a pothole at full speed ahead, which slammed the other Lunatacs’ heads into the roof of the van.

"Shut up, at least we’re not walking anymore!" she snarled back, ignoring the curses and gripes from the back.

It was about then that Scully started to come out of her trance, and she looked around nervously as the haze of hypnosis wore off. She realized she was in some form of speeding vehicle, being held captive by creatures that were definitely not from anywhere on Earth. Oh great, I’ve been abducted by aliens—again, she thought miserably.

Casting a casual glance over as he rubbed his sore head, a result of the latest of Chilla’s unexpected turns behind the wheel, Alluro noticed that Scully was coming out of her trance. He raised his club above her again, and Scully slipped back into oblivion.

Mulder and the Thundercats found the road again, and found his crashed rental car. Panthro surveyed the damage. "Well the technology is a little more primitive than I’m used to, but I can get this running again in no time, and even fix the dent with a little help from Bengali’s hammer," he said, and started tinkering with the vehicle. Ten minutes later it was running again, and everybody squeezed in. It was a very tight fit, with six of them piled on top of each other in the back, Mulder driving with Snarf and the Thunderkittens squeezed in the front, and the rest riding on the trunk and roof of the car. Mulder sped down the road at the best speed he could manage, looking for any clues that might hint at the whereabouts of Scully and the Lunatacs.

"Stop here!" Cheetara yelled suddenly.

Immediately Mulder slammed on the brakes, much to everyone’s discomfort. He winced as Bengali’s foot connected with the back of his head, and he heard Pumyra squeal as Lion-O’s elbow dug into her stomach from the sudden movement. "Ugh, sorry about that," Mulder called out.

Cheetara surveyed the woods and spoke in an urgent tone. "My sixth sense tells me that your friend was here, with the Lunatacs, recently."

They got out of the car and looked around. "Look at these weird marks in the road," WilyKat pointed out. "It looks like something turned around really fast."

"Those came from tires like this vehicle has," Tygra observed, noting the similarity of the rubber treads on the wheels.

While they surveyed the skid marks, Mulder then noticed another crucial piece of evidence—a Morley cigarette butt. "Cancer Man..." he murmured, as a vindictive and determined look crossed his boyish features. "It’s all his plot! He’s behind this, I know it!" the agent ranted.

"Who’s Cancer Man?" WilyKit asked.

"He’s someone powerful, someone who is involved in every shadowy conspiracy in this country," Mulder said seriously, his eyes flashing with rabid conviction. "He’s someone who is ruthless and evil… kind of like Mumm-Ra, only mortal."

Just then, the van driver ran out of the woods. "You gotta help me!" he cried, shaking in horror. "Some freakin’ weird aliens and a redheaded FBI agent took my van for a federal investigation!" As he got closer to them, he noticed that Mulder was the only human, and the others were cat-like creatures, and his eyes grew wider in fear. He backed up slowly.

Mulder held out his hands and approached him. "Don’t be alarmed sir, I’m a Special Agent Fox Mulder of the FBI, and I’m investigating a case..."

The man screamed. "NO MORE FBI AGENTS AND ALIENS!" He ran in the opposite direction, vanishing again into the woods.

"How sad, he seems to be such a troubled young man," Lynx-O said shaking his head.

"Never mind that nutball, we have to save Scully and find the Lunatacs!" Mulder insisted. "According to him, they have a van now, which means they can travel anywhere. Who knows what they’ll do to Scully or what they might use her for?" Mulder worried. "I’ve seen your show enough times to know that the Lunatacs probably had Alluro hypnotize her to be used for their own evil purposes as a slave. And when they’re not in a Y-7 universe, who knows what other nefarious evil they might try? Oh, we have to save her, before it’s too late!"

"But how will we find her?" Pumyra asked. "This world is just as large as ours."

Mulder turned to Lion-O, suddenly struck by inspiration coming from his memories of the cartoon. "Lion-O, can’t you use ‘sight beyond sight’ to locate Scully?"

"You know about that?" Lion-O replied, surprised.

"Just answer me!"

"Yes, I think I can use it. I see no reason why I shouldn’t be able to. Let me give it a try." He retrieved the sword from his claw shield and held it up as he did before. "Sword of Omens, give me sight beyond sight!"

The Thundercat Lord gazed into the eyeholes of the sword and saw a vision of a woman he somehow knew was Mulder’s friend Scully. She was in the back of a van, seated next to Alluro. Across from them sat Luna, Amok, and TugMug. He could make out the back of RedEye’s head as he sat in the front passenger seat, turning up the volume of some loud alternative music playing on the radio. Next to him, Chilla was driving the vehicle like a madwoman, speeding and running traffic lights in an area far more urban than the one Mulder and the Thundercats were currently in. The ice woman was cursing, blaring the horn, and shooting ice out the window at anyone who got in her way. They passed a sign that said "New York City 70 miles". Apparently the Lunatacs had stopped for food somewhere along the way, because there were two empty pizza boxes and several empty beer cans in the back as well. Lion-O watched TugMug guzzle down a beer, and Amok a 2-liter bottle of Pepsi, while Luna and Scully ate slices of pizza. Scully seemed to be dazed or out of it—Lion-O recognized it as Alluro’s hypnotic influence—but appeared content enough, as if she was willingly going along with everything. Alluro had one arm around Scully and a beer in his other hand, boasting about how well he’d done in finding them a good human slave to help them out.

Lion-O quickly related the scene to Mulder. "They don’t seem to have hurt your friend, but I do think they’re up to no good. I think we should get to this ‘New York City’ place as soon as possible so we can get Scully away from them and stop them. I believe that city is where they’re going, and we should follow before they cause any more trouble."

"All right, let me try to call my boss with an update on this, and we’ll get back on the road and head for New York City," Mulder said, trying his phone again, but still couldn’t get any reception. "Doesn’t this thing come in anywhere around here?" he grumbled. Annoyed, he tossed it on the seat next to him as he piled in the car along with the Thundercats. They drove on, heading towards New York City.

"Sir! The trace on Mulder’s cell phone became active again! Shall we follow him?" the young military officer asked Cancer Man as they hovered in the unmarked helicopter.

"Of course I want to find Agent Mulder," the mysterious government man replied, as though the answer should have been obvious. "Some of those escaped cartoon people are with him, and we must find them before the general public gets wind of this, or it will become nearly impossible to clean up this mess." He fished a device out of his coat pocket. "I must use this on them and neutralize the situation as soon as possible," Cancer Man stated, eyeing a mysterious black contraption that looked like a cross between a TV remote controller and a walkman.

"Yes sir," the officer replied diligently, and steered the craft in the direction of Mulder’s cell phone signal.

It was three in the morning when the van holding the Lunatacs and Scully stopped dead on the highway. "What the hell?" a furious Chilla yelled. "Why can’t I start this thing again?"

"Don’t ask me how this primitive technology works," RedEye snorted contemptuously.

"Does it have fuel?" Alluro asked.

"How on Third Earth would I know?" Chilla retorted angrily.

Luna turned toward Scully, wondering if the human would know. It seemed most humans had the same sort of vehicle, so it was logical to draw the conclusion that Scully would know how to determine if it had fuel or not. "Scully, do you know how fix this vehicle or what’s wrong with it?" the tiny Lunatac questioned the still-mesmerized Scully.

Scully leaned over and looked at the dashboard. The gas gauge was pinned on E. "It’s out of gas," Scully replied, her voice subdued by the effects of the hypnosis. "We’ll need to be towed to a gas station. I can’t fix it."

"Perfect," grumbled RedEye.

"So what now, Luna?" TugMug asked. "We could just steal another vehicle, and it would probably be easier."

Luna yawned. "Actually, I suggest we find somewhere to rest and formulate our plans. An abandoned building perhaps, somewhere we can sleep and recharge ourselves undetected, somewhere those blasted Thundercats won’t find us!"

"I agree with Luna, for once," Alluro said. "Let’s go. You too, Scully," he ordered.

Scully nodded obediently and followed him and the others out of the van.

"You know," TugMug said, leering at Scully with a lecherous grin on his face, "the way she follows your orders, it kinda makes you wonder what else she would do for us."

RedEye chuckled and eyed Scully himself. "Hmmm, she’s not bad-looking, for a human..."

"You’re disgusting," Chilla snarled at the male Lunatacs. "She’s not even our species!"

"At least we won’t get frostbite from her," Alluro shot back at Chilla.

"All of you, just shut up and find somewhere for us to hide out!" Luna screeched, irritated by the squabbling.

RedEye pointed to a building the distance labeled Motel 6."Over there, that place looks like it has somewhere we could sleep. It has a lot of rooms."

"Well, Scully, is that an option?" Luna asked, figuring it was easier to ask the human about the customs rather than start a fight somewhere it would be more hassle than it would be worth.

"It’s a motel. We have to pay for rooms there," she answered obediently.

"Can you get us a couple of rooms? Will your FBI credentials get us that?" Luna questioned further.

"I can put it on my FBI credit card."

"Then do so," Alluro ordered her. "Now." Scully nodded in assent and walked to the office alone. She told the man on duty she needed two, possibly three available rooms for an official FBI investigation and showed him her badge. Running her credit card through the computer, and getting subsequent approval, he gave her three keys. The hypnotized agent returned to the parking lot where the Lunatacs were waiting and Luna immediately took the keys from her.

"All right. Amok and I will take this room, the rest of you can share the other two," Luna decided. She kept one key for herself and handed the rest of the keys to TugMug, and rode Amok into her room.

"Amok go sleepy now," the giant beast could be heard saying before the door closed behind them.

"Great, so there’s five of us and two rooms," Chilla observed. "Who goes where?"

"Scully needs her hypnotic hold reinforced every once in a while, so she must stay with me, wherever I end up," Alluro stated.

"Hey, Chilla, we could share a room..." RedEye suggested with a lewd smirk.

"Don’t even think about it," the ice woman snarled, and before anyone else could argue, grabbed one of the keys from TugMug’s fingers. "I’ll be staying by myself tonight. See you in the morning," she hissed, retreating to her room.

"That’s not fair," Alluro interjected. "The three of us and Scully all have to share a room while you get your own?"

Chilla’s reply was to slam her door and lock it.

"Guess so," TugMug grumbled. "Might as well go inside."

The four of them went into the room and saw two large double beds.

RedEye groaned. "We have to share beds too?" he complained.

"You mean you two do," Alluro said, grinning. "Remember, Scully stays with me."

Mulder and the Thundercats arrived in the city a few hours later, but didn’t see much of anything that would indicate that the Lunatacs and Scully had been there. They went into a parking garage to get their plans together and remain out of the view of any passers-by, even though at 3 a.m. in New York City, they were probably less frightening than most others who were out at that hour. Suddenly Mulder’s cell phone rang. WilyKat picked it up off the seat of the car and answered it before the agent could himself.

"Hello?" he said to the device.

"Mulder is that you?" a surprised male voice answered.

WilyKat blinked. "Uh no, this is—"

"Give me that! It might be Scully!" Mulder said, grabbing the phone. "Scully is that you?" he asked worriedly.

"Mulder! This is Skinner. Who was that who answered your phone?"

"Oh, uh, that was, well, WilyKat, sir," Mulder muttered.

He could almost hear Skinner’s humorless frown on the other end of the line. "What are you talking about?" his boss demanded.

"What I’m talking about is that the report was correct, sir. The cast of that show ‘Thundercats’ did indeed come alive, only they intercepted us before we could even get to investigating the place where it happened. I’m with the Thundercats themselves now, but it seems the Lunatacs—the villains that escaped—have run off with Scully. We’re trying to save her now," he explained. "Uh, is there any particular reason you’re calling so late?"

A heavy sigh sounded on the other end of the line. "I got a call that you and Scully never arrived at the house with the TV in question, and I haven’t been able to get through to either of your phones for hours. I was going to wait until morning, but I got a call from some of the guys in the lab. Apparently our friend the smoking man brought in the TV in question for a confidential investigation, but then once some studies were run on it, both it and the reports vanished from the lab—and from existence as far as we know. From whatever I’ve been able to piece together, it was some sort of experimental government equipment that was sold under the guise of a regular TV for some sort of a test, but what it was meant to be used for and what it does are now mysteries. That’s all I can tell you. Now what’s this about Scully? Where is she?" Skinner asked, his voice taking on a worried note.

"She’s been kidnapped by the Lunatacs, and we’re trying find her. Don’t worry, the Thundercats and I are doing everything we can. If anyone can get her and stop them, it’s the Thundercats," Mulder assured the assistant director.

"Even as tired as I am at 3 a.m., that still sounded ridiculous, but good luck and keep me posted," Skinner said, and hung up the phone. Mulder shut his phone off too.

"Is everything all right Agent Mulder?" Bengali asked.

"Yeah, that was my boss," Mulder replied. "We have to find Scully soon. I just wish I wasn’t so tired. I’ve been up for over 22 hours," the agent said, rubbing his eyes to help stay awake.

"Rowr, maybe we should rest for a few hours. The Lunatacs have been awake and as busy as we have all this time, they most likely will have to rest too. Maybe we could rest and go after them later with all we’ve got, snarf, snarf," Snarf suggested. "Besides, rowr, I’m starving. We need to keep our energy up."

"Let me double-check with sight beyond sight and see if that’s a viable option," Lion-O said, looking into the sword. No images came to him. "The sword isn’t showing anything, so I guess there isn’t any activity. Maybe we could take a rest for a while, if Scully isn’t in immediate danger."

"Well, if you’re sure Scully is all right..." Mulder said.

"Check again, just in case, and ask for her specifically," Pumyra suggested. "In this strange world, we shouldn’t take any chances."

Lion-O sighed and summoned Sight Beyond Sight again, this time asking specifically for her by name. All he got was a hazy vision of a darkened hotel room, and an outline of two figures in bed. Before he could see anything further, he set it aside. "I think she’s asleep," he said quickly. At least he hoped she was asleep. Otherwise, if the Lunatacs were involved, he frankly didn’t want to know about it.

"Besides, if she were in danger the sword would have shown us and warned us," Tygra assured them. After all, the sword had never let them down before.

"Or my sixth sense," Cheetara added. "I don’t have any feeling that your friend is suffering or in danger."

"Ok, I guess even Thundercats have to sleep sometimes," Mulder agreed. Soon they found a nearby hotel, and Mulder got them all rooms on his platinum government-issued FBI credit card.

"I hate to tell you this sir, but Mulder shut off his phone again, right after he got a call from Skinner," the military officer told Cancer Man.

"Did he say anything important?" Cancer Man asked.

"Mulder affirmed that he is with the Thundercats and Skinner seems to know something about the TV you ran through the lab."

"How much does he know?" Cancer Man inquired, a displeased look crossing his features.

"Nothing concrete, and he has no evidence to back anything up."

He relaxed. "Good. Then we have nothing to worry about. We’ll just have to search the area around where Mulder’s signal cut off."

"The signal terminated somewhere in New York City, midtown," the officer informed him.

"We will land and have the area thoroughly searched until we find them, then," Cancer Man ordered, and puffed on his cigarette.

Several hours later, gloomy daylight from the rainy day outside filled the room where Scully was forced to spend the night with the Lunatacs. She was the first in the room to awaken, and sat up in the bed trying to figure out what had happened. Her memories of the previous night were somewhat fuzzy, and she wasn’t sure where she was. A motel room? Where’s Mulder? Are we still investigating that strange cartoon case?

She looked around and gasped, realizing that she had apparently slept in nothing but her underwear, and in the same bed with some bizarre looking purple-skinned alien. She then noticed two more of the strange beings in the bed on the other side of the room. They were all still asleep. Oh my god, what’s happening? Where have they taken me? The agent wondered, as he details of the aliens kidnapping her in the woods and freezing Mulder came back to her with frightening clarity. These guys killed Mulder and held me hostage. I have to get away. Scully slipped off the edge of the bed, hastily re-dressed, ran for the door, and was about to sneak out when someone pounded on it.

"Get your butts out of bed now, you lazy bums," a high-pitched voice screeched from outside. The horrendous noise made Scully wince, and it jolted the other Lunatacs awake.

RedEye noticed Scully by the door, about to make her escape. "Oh no you don’t," he exclaimed, leapt out of bed in a flash, and grabbed her.

"HELP!" Scully shouted. "Somebody help me!"
 
 
 
 

Alluro leapt out of bed and waved his club over Scully once again, covering her in the blue light. "Calm down, my dear Scully," he ordered suavely. "You will not fight us or try to run from us again. You cannot resist my influence—cannot resist me—and you will give up this futile attempt to free yourself." He strode closer and stared into her dazed eyes, enthralled by the light. "You can’t win, Scully," he insisted. "Give up, and surrender to my power."

"I—I can’t win," Scully mumbled obediently.

"You will remain our obedient and helpful slave." Alluro ordered.

"I will obey you," Scully replied, fully back in her trance.

TugMug rolled out of bed and wheeled over to the door to let Luna in. "Nice work, Alluro," the graviton sneered. "She almost got away from us!"

"You idiots almost lost her?" Luna screeched as she and Amok barged in. "Can’t you do anything right?"

Alluro scowled indignantly at Luna, while Chilla walked up from behind her. "Hey, I stole us another vehicle thing this morning," she announced. "It’s some kind of big van with a cot in the back and lots of flashing lights and a siren. It goes fast and these stupid humans seem to steer clear of it. Oh, and I also stole us some more food," she said, holding several bags of McDonald’s takeout breakfasts and gesturing to the vehicle she stole. It was an ambulance.

"Good thinking, Chilla!" Luna said, admiring the vehicle for a moment before she turned to the others. "Come on, get inside, let’s go! We don’t want to waste our time, do we?"

"Wait, I have to return the room keys," Scully said. Even under the hypnosis, she was still responsible.

Luna sighed. "Very well, but make sure she doesn’t try anything," she said, more to Alluro than Scully, as she handed Scully the keys. The hypnotist nodded in agreement and followed Scully to the office, waiting outside while she returned the keys, and then once that was taken care of, forced her into the ambulance with the others. Chilla turned on the lights and siren and drove them away at top speed.

Mulder was the first among his group to wake up, and he went to wake up the others. They all gathered in Lion-O’s room, and tried to formulate a plan.

"Well I just checked sight beyond sight again," Lion-O said, "and this is what I saw." He showed Mulder a vision of the Lunatacs and Scully in an ambulance, now inside the city as well, terrorizing it with Chilla’s driving. Mulder recognized their location—it was only a couple of blocks away, and as luck would have it, they were headed in their direction.

"They’re close!" Mulder exclaimed. "Let’s get outside and prepare to intercept them! This is the chance we’ve been waiting for!"

"Yeah, let’s go kick some butt!" WilyKat said excitedly. His sister also cheered with similar enthusiasm.

Panthro slammed his fist into his palm. "I can’t wait to get my hands on those Lunatacs after what they’ve pulled."

Their plans made, the Thundercats and Mulder went outside by the street and waited.

Not far away, Cancer Man sat in the passenger seat of an unmarked black vehicle with government plates that sped down the streets of New York City. Three agents from some unknown branch of the government were in the car with him. One was holding some sort of tracing device. "Agent Mulder’s cell phone was traced to this area. We should be able to get a fix on his exact location and be there within minutes," one of the men told Cancer Man.

"And is the box ready to use on those cartoon characters?"

"Yes, sir," another man confirmed.

"Good. I want this cleaned up as soon as possible," Cancer Man replied, and puffed on his cigarette.

Chilla raced through yet another red light, missing a collision with a taxi by inches. The irate driver flipped her off, but she paid it little attention. Thus far, it was a good thing they were in an ambulance and other motorists were for the most part avoiding them, because if they hadn’t been they surely would have been killed by Chilla’s driving by then. Suddenly another taxi switched lanes out of the blue and cut them off. Chilla couldn’t hit the brakes on time, and they crashed squarely into the back of the yellow car.

"Nice work, Frosty," TugMug sneered.

Chilla was livid. "Shut up you obnoxious—"

"Stop it!" Luna shrieked. "We have to get out of here before something happens! Let’s go!" she screeched. The Lunatacs all got out of the ambulance, and piled onto the busy streets of New York City.

"Lion-O, look!" Pumyra shouted, and pointed to the ambulance crash. They saw the Lunatacs, with Alluro and RedEye each holding one of Scully’s arms and dragging her, running away from the ambulance crash at top speed. Scully hung there limply, a blank expression on her face.

"Follow them!" Mulder shouted, as he broke into a full run after them, waving his gun wildly. "Federal Agents, nobody move or interfere!" Mulder shouted to the pedestrians on the street, who were watching the cartoon characters and FBI agents in fascinated awe and shock.

Mulder and the Thundercats followed the Lunatacs in hot pursuit. So did an unmarked black vehicle with government plates that had arrived moments after the crash.

The Lunatacs looked back and realized the Thundercats and the guy they had frozen back in the woods were following them, and immediately they decided it was in their best interests to lose them. They ran into the nearest subway station.

"Where is this going to take us? Underground?" TugMug asked.

"Who cares, as long as it gets us away from those Thundercats?" Alluro retorted.

They arrived at the turnstiles that led to the tracks, and jumped over them. "Hey! Where’s your fare?" shouted a subway token collector.

"Here’s your fare, human," Chilla hissed, and spat a stream of ice that froze the guy solid. Just as a train arrived, the Lunatacs ran with Scully onto the platform. Everyone in the area backed away in horror and gave them a wide berth, and the Lunatacs ran into the subway car. Everyone inside that cleared out as well, and they had the car to themselves. The train pulled out of the station.

"They went down there!" Cheetara shouted, pointing to the subway entrance.

"Let’s go!" Tygra said. "Where does this lead to, Mulder?"

Mulder groaned. "Oh, no, they’re in the subway station?"

"Rrrowl, what’s a subway?" Bengali asked.

"An underground train system," Mulder huffed as he ran. "If they get on a train before we can stop them, there’s no telling where they might wind up."

"Don’t worry, we’ll catch them!" Lion-O assured him, and the group of them ran down the stairway, re-frightening everyone in the station when they saw the second group of cartoon characters run in.

"Snarf, snarf, look at this!" Snarf pointed at the subway booth.

"Great Jaga, he’s frozen!" WilyKit gasped. "Chilla must have done this!"

"HOOO!" Lion-O blasted the ice off him, as the others jumped the turnstiles onto the platform. Once he was sure the man was safe, Lion-O followed. This time the subway token collector didn’t say anything.

Everyone on the platform screamed again when they saw Mulder and the Thundercats arrive. As luck would have it, another train pulled in, and they hopped on. Seeing several cat-people with a deranged-looking federal agent waving a gun, the people inside that train car vacated it too, leaving Mulder and the Thundercats alone in the car. The train pulled out.

"The people in this dimension sure aren’t very friendly," Pumyra remarked. "They keep running away from us screaming."

"We can’t worry about that now," Lion-O said worriedly. "We have to stop the Lunatacs and find Agent Mulder’s partner before they destroy this entire city."

"So where do we look? I don’t think they’re on this vehicle," Panthro grumbled.

"No, they probably took the other train, the one just before this one," Mulder said, regretting not picking up a subway schedule. "We’ll have to figure out where they got off and look for them."

"That shouldn’t be hard, we’ll just look for anything damaged or unusual at each stop," Cheetara said.

"Unfortunately on the New York City subway, seeing unusual things isn’t really that difficult," Mulder remarked. The train stopped. Everything on the platform looked peaceful, and the people seemed calm.

"I don’t think the Lunatacs got off here," Tygra guessed. The train made a few more stops, which also looked normal. At the next stop, they looked out and saw laser burns, a floating bench, and several terrified people screaming.

"I think this just might be our stop," Pumyra said.

Mulder and the Thundercats got out of the subway car, and followed the destruction up to the street, just in time to see the Lunatacs drag Scully into a Macy’s department store.

Cancer Man was not happy. "They went into the subway! Where have they gone? Can you follow them?"

"Yes, it I think I can follow Mulder’s signal. I’ll go wherever he does, sir."

"See to it that you do," Cancer Man growled, angrily snuffing out his cigarette.

The Lunatacs and Scully burst into Macy’s, scaring salespeople and customers alike senseless.

"Everybody out!" Luna yelled at the startled humans. "We are powerful beings from another dimension, and we won’t hesitate to blast everyone in the place to bits if you get in our way! Do you understand?" she screeched at top volume, shattering the glass on the nearest cosmetics counter. Not surprisingly, everyone in the area ran out as fast as they could.

Moments later, Mulder and the Thundercats ran in, just as hordes of terrified shoppers and employees herded out of the building in droves. "Excuse me, did a group of odd-looking creatures run through here?" Mulder asked a terrified saleswoman on her way out the door. "It’s all right, I’m with the FBI, and I’m here to get it under control."

"You’re going to get us under control? I don’t think so, human!" Luna announced, emerging from around a corner with the other Lunatacs, Alluro holding Scully, behind her.

"Scully!" Mulder shouted.

Scully’s mind started to come around again. Mulder, was that Mulder?

"Let her go, Lunatacs," Lion-O ordered firmly.

RedEye sneered at the Thundercat. "Who’s going to make us? You?"

"You bet," Panthro answered with a growl, clenching his fists.

Alluro flashed them a smug, twisted smile. "But we’ve come to like our dear Agent Scully so much... we couldn’t possibly give her up now. After all, she’d miss us too, wouldn’t you, Scully?" he asked her, staring hypnotically into her eyes.

Scully was still somewhat under his mesmerizing control, but somewhat slipping out of it. "I—I—Mulder, where am I?" she murmured, dazed and disoriented. Part of her was fighting Alluro’s influence, but she was having trouble.

Mulder could see that she wasn’t fully entranced. "Fight him, Scully! Don’t let him control you!" he yelled feverishly.

Lion-O drew the Sword of Omens from the claw shield. "Last warning, Lunatacs, let her go," he commanded.

"Make us, feline," TugMug sneered.

Without hesitation, Lion-O raised his sword. "Thunder—Thunder—Thundercats, HOOOO!" He shouted the Thundercats’ battle cry with a loud and powerful roar, and the Sword of Omens grew projecting the Thundercat signal onto the ceiling, through the roof, and out onto the cloudy sky above the city. The Thundercats’ eyes glowed and they sprang forth with renewed strength, preparing to take on the Lunatacs.

"Not so fast, or Scully pays the price!" Chilla hissed, preparing to freeze her.

By now Scully was completely out of her trance. "I don’t think so," the female agent said defiantly, and punched the ice woman in the face, catching Chilla off guard and knocking her over with the unexpected force. Before Chilla could recover, Alluro reached down and grabbed Scully’s other arm.

"Feisty, aren’t we?" he sneered as she squirmed. "Almost as feisty as last night!"

Scully scowled at the sleazy Lunatac. "Don’t mess with a federal agent," she snarled commandingly, and kicked him in the groin with her heel as hard she could. Alluro let out a yelp and doubled over in pain, and the Thundercats pounced on the Lunatacs, giving them the thrashing of their lives. Freed from their capture, Scully ran to Mulder’s side. "Mulder, I thought you were frozen!"

"The Thundercats saved me, Scully! See, they really did come out of that TV!"

"It’s unbelievable," Scully said breathlessly, watching the incredible scene unfold before her. "I would have said anyone who even thought this could happen would be nuts, but I’m here myself, and even though I still can’t believe it, it’s all still happening."

They watched the cartoon enemies fight their battle in the now-demolished store. Lion-O and Panthro were fighting Luna and Amok (mostly Amok) over in the cosmetics section. Cheetara and Pumyra were kicking Chilla’s icy butt over in lingerie, while the Thunderkittens had easily overtaken the already incapacitated—thanks to Scully—Alluro and were tying him up in the jewelry section using silver chains and pearl necklaces. On the other side of the aisle there was a battle royale in menswear involving Lynx-O, Bengali, and Tygra as they beat the tar out of TugMug and RedEye. Snarf wisely stayed out of it, standing by Scully and Mulder’s sides, making sure that Scully was all right, and sampling choice pieces of gourmet chocolate from the nearby Godiva display.

Just as the Thundercats finished subduing the Lunatacs, someone else walked in—Cancer Man and his men in black suits.

"That is quite enough," Cancer Man addressed the unruly group of agents and cartoon characters. "It’s time to send you all back to where you came from." One of the men pressed a button on the weird TV remote/walkman contraption and a glowing portal opened right in the center of Macy’s. Through it the Thundercats could see their own Third Earth, instead of the First Earth they were currently on.

"Look, it’s Third Earth!" exclaimed Tygra. "That’s our way home."

"And it’s time to send you troublemakers back there," Panthro snarled at the Lunatacs.

"Hey, we like it here!" RedEye protested.

"Too bad," WilyKat said, as the Thundercats tossed the Lunatacs through the portal one by one, each of them shouting curses and obscenities directed at the Thundercats as they did so.

Mulder blinked. "I never heard them say that on the cartoon."

"It’s time for us to return home too," Cheetara said to Mulder and Scully. "Agent Mulder, it was a pleasure meeting you," she told him, drawing him into a friendly hug.

"You too, guys," Mulder said, returning the gesture.

"I’m sorry the Lunatacs were so much trouble, Agent Scully. I hope they didn’t hurt you," Pumyra said to the redheaded agent.

"No, I’m fine," she answered. "A little shaken up, but fine."

"Bye Mulder!" WilyKit said with a wave.
 
 
 
 

The Thundercats, with the exception of Lion-O, jumped through the portal. Lion-O instead stood before Mulder and Scully for a moment. "Agent Mulder, Agent Scully, I’m sorry to have had to meet you under such troublesome circumstances… but I’m glad we were lucky enough to find as good an ally as you were, Mulder. Scully, I assure you that we will deal with the Lunatacs for kidnapping you. I wish you well."

The lion then turned to the man holding the portal generator. "I don’t know why you’ve been tampering with inter-dimensional links, but I think your civilization is not ready for such things, and I don’t believe you should continue to have access to things like this until you have the responsibility to handle them. I’ll take that off your hands," he said, grabbing the portal generator from his hand. The agent reached for his gun, but thanks to his Thundercat speed, he had already vanished into the portal. "Goodbye!" Lion-O called out just as the portal vanished from existence forever.

"The prototype!" ranted Cancer Man’s henchman. "He got the portal generator prototype! We don’t have any others!"

"Hah!" Mulder shouted, going over to Cancer Man and waving his fist at him. "Your evil scheme is over, you chain-smoking maniac!"

Cancer Man chuckled and lit a cigarette. "Evil scheme, Agent Mulder? I do believe you’ve been watching too many cartoons."

"Don’t play games! What just happened here?" the angry agent demanded.

"Nothing," Cancer Man replied smugly. "Nobody saw anything, and at this very moment all concrete evidence of this entire… episode... is being destroyed. You have no proof of anything, as usual, Agent Mulder." The older government man smiled maddeningly, and remained calm despite Mulder’s ire. "I suggest you return to Washington now. Agent Scully looks very tired," he finished. With that, he left the store puffing away on his Morleys, his men behind him.

"He can’t get away with this Scully," Mulder said angrily. "He can’t pretend this never happened! We have to find out why they came out of that TV and the evil purpose it was intended for!"

Scully sighed. "He’s right, Mulder. We have no proof, not even a tangible crime to investigate. We have to no choice but to drop it, there’s nothing else we can do," she said with a tired shrug. "Besides, I do want to get home. I’m exhausted. I want this nightmare over with, and to go back to investigating a nice normal case of some oddball who thinks he’s seen a UFO or is being communicated to by Elvis."

Mulder frowned. "All right. I guess I need to recover from this case too," he admitted. The two of them headed towards the door, shaking their heads as they surveyed the damage. As they left the building and walked down the steps, Mulder turned to Scully and smiled. "So Scully, what do you think of ‘Thundercats’ now? Good show or what?" he asked her, a smirk on his face.

Scully gave him the look, and hailed a taxi.