Darkslayer
By: Thundercatroar
RATED R: This story has bad language,  (check out the above) sexual innuendo/situations, and violence galore, soooooo.... if you are a prude, under eighteen, or easily offended get out now before your eyes burn, or you condemn your soul to a freakish, painful, torment for an eternity as Satan's sock puppet, BWAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Okay i'm done.
THUNDERCATS HO!

                     Darkslayer: Prologue

     A refugee ship arrived on New Thundera.  All the Thundercats greeted the ship as well as inhabitants of the refugee compounds which were near the landing area.  As the new refugees filed out of the spaceship they were welcomed with hugs, kisses, and offers of assistance with their belongings. The last two to exit the ship was the ship's captain, his wife, two children and a baby. The captain stood before the Thundercats and bowed.  "Who, may I ask, is in charge here?  That would be me." Said Lion-O "Welcome to New Thundera."
      The captain smiled and handed Lion-O his log book.  The captain's wife sent their children away to play with the Thunder Kittens and the small bundle in her arms began to cry, Cheetara and Pumyra heavy with their own cubs walked over to the woman.
      Panthro walked around the refugee ship and asked "How in the universe did you come by this piece of mutant junk? That sir," said the captain "is a long story."
      Cheetara and Pumyra grinned at the woman who was cooing at the now silent infant.  "May we see your baby?" asked Pumyra "Of course you may, but this isn't my baby."  Cheetara and Pumyra looked at each other then the woman, curiously.  "You see, Thundercats this baby is special, an orphan."  The woman smiled and pulled the blanket away from the infant it's eyes dilated to two narrow black slits, and the baby began to once again howl.
        Cheetara and Pumyra looked at the baby and  silence followed, it was obvious the baby was not full blooded Thunderian.  The woman covered the infant's eyes and said "This baby is part Thunderian and part Plundarian."  Cheetara pulled the blanket back again and gave the baby a closer inspection, the little female reached up towards Cheetara's face and kicked her feet, Cheetara could not help but smile.  The baby had a white stomach and throat, the rest of her body was a light yellowish color with faint brown spots and stripes adorning her.  Pumyra tickled the baby under it's chin and gently brushed the shock of whitish yellow hair on her head.  The only really odd thing Cheetara and Pumyra could tell about the baby was that her hands and feet were larger than an average Thunderian baby, and that she was bigger in respect to bone structure, and her facial features were a little different but not so much so than  Thunderian's.  Pumyra continued playing with the baby as she asked "Does she have a name? Yes," said the woman "her name is Ardua, after the Plundarian goddess of light. Ardua Darkslayer." While the three women continued talking, the refugee ship's captain regaled the Thundercat men of the story of how they came to New Thundera.
      "During our flight from first Thundera our ship was destroyed as you all well know, a lucky few of us boarded escape capsules before the ship exploded.  Fortunately we were rescued by a shipload of renegade Plundarians, deserters from their respective armies.  We plotted a course for a planet called Signus, which was five galacto years away, we had to use suspension capsules because there wasn't enough food to last out the trip, and we would all be old before we got there even if there were.  Obviously we landed on Signus safely, since I was captain of the ship the others elected me their leader.
       I and the leader of the Plundarians decided that it would be best if we all tried to get along for the sake of survival, it was hard, and there was squabbling at first but eventually everyone began to work together.  The leader of the Plundarians name was Daro Darkslayer, and he must have been someone of great importance on Plundarr, because when he said jump the others said how high. Thanks mostly to Daro we all got together, worked hard, grew food, and soon after that did very well for ourselves.  Some of the Plundarians and Thunderians even began to intermarry and produce offspring," The Thundercats looked at each other in surprise. "coincidentally, Thundercats, Ardua, that baby is a product of one of those intermarriages, her father was Daro, and her mother's name was Mala." The captain looked down. "Daro knew that things would not go well forever, he knew his own people too well, and saw trouble coming. Unfortunately he was right.
      Daro, I, and a few trusted others began making repairs to the ship, we hadn't been finished for two weeks when without warning the pureblood Plundarians attacked. Oh, by the gods, it was horrible," The captain took a breath. "the purebloods murdered the mixed marriage couples first, they didn't even spare the infants and children !" The Thundercats listened in horror. "Ardua's mother was killed in the village during the first of the attack, Daro threw us Ardua and told us to run to the ship, and leave.  We all tried to get Daro to come with us but he refused and stayed behind to hold off the attackers." The captain shook his head "In all my years of life I have never seen carnage like I saw that day, and I never thought one man could fight the way Daro Darkslayer did, he killed at least twenty five men before he was overrun."  The captain looked at the Thundercats and said with pride "Daro Darkslayer was a noble man, and a good friend, as was his wife.  The universe is a poorer place without them."
      The captain looked up at the tower station which transmitted the beam that piloted the ship he flew to the ground.  "I thank the gods that you all sent a homing signal for our navicomputer to follow, as well as the guidance beam, we never would have made it here without it, we wouldn't have even known Thundera had reformed!  The captain smiled and took a deep breath, "I'm just glad to be alive, along with my family and that most of us made it back." Lion-O stood before the captain and put his hands on his shoulders and said, "We are happy you all are back too."
      Lion-O and the rest of the males walked over to where the women were standing, and looked at the baby.  Panthro took a long look and said, "Hmmmmmm, she's not as ugly as I thought she'd be."  All three females looked at Panthro....unamused.  The captain cleared his throat. "Do you have an orphanage here on New Thundera? We have two children of our own to look after, the way things are now we may not be able to properly care for a baby, I hope you do not think me unkind or uncaring, but we must care for our own first."
      The baby began to cry.  Tygra looked at his fellow Thundercats. "Surely one of us can take her in?" He said with an unsure voice.  Cheetara took the baby into her arms, it cried. Tygra, Bengali, Pumyra, Lynx-O, Lion-O, Snarf, Snarfer, all followed suit but the baby still howled.  The only Thundercat left was Panthro.  "Don't look at me," Said Panthro, "I might break it!"  The captain's wife smiled and forced the bundle of warm squirm into Panthro's arms and said "You can't break a baby!"
      The baby began to quiet and Panthro looked into Ardua's big blue eyes, soon the baby stopped crying all together and began to look around.  The baby cooed and without warning, thrust her hand upwards and latched onto Panthro's nose, while kicking her legs.  "Hey, she's got a man's grip!" Panthro said while laughing.  Panthro gently pried the infant's hand from his nose, and the others smiled.  She had braided blonde-brown hair tied onto her wrist. "We can see who her favorite is!" Tygra said. Panthro looked again into the infant's eyes, a toothless smile broke on Ardua's face, Panthro brushed his hand on the infant's face and quietly said, "I'll raise her." Panthro heard himself say it not quite believing it.  All the Thundercats looked at Panthro in great surprise.
      On the way back to Cat's Lair Panthro wondered just what he had gotten into.  How could he, a crotchety, temperamental, old engineer, find the patience, and time to raise a child?  Panthro thought that surely the others thought he was insane,  Panthro himself thought he was insane, he could not get out of raising the baby either.  But then, thought Panthro, he really didn't want to.
      Panthro looked at Pumyra and Bengali they were so much in love, his eyes then turned to Cheetara and Tygra.  Panthro with a twinge of regret, looked at Cheetara's full stomach, her bio-scan revealed she was carrying twins.  Panthro wondered if he had done things a little differently would those be his babies, Panthro quickly wiped those thoughts from his mind.  Cheetara and Tygra were his best friends in the world, at long last they had found the happiness that they had longed for so long but had denied themselves..... to spare his feelings.  Panthro then looked at Lion-O in admiration.  Lion-O had lost a wife and a child in the course of one day, and he still had the courage to rise every morning and do as he must.
 

      Panthro sat in his workshop fixing the sending unit to the Feliner, unhappily.  Panthro unscrewed the housing from the part all the while wondering how twenty years could have passed so quickly.
      Ardua was leaving New Thundera tomorrow, his little girl was leaving home.