Outskirts of Thundera, Mission Clock at 39:00
Dusk

Standing on the top of the battered stone wall we could see the entire field that spread out towards the borders of Thundera. Out across the field were countless large mechanical weapons of war, accompanied by a slew of infantry. “So wasn’t Endeavor supposed to be backing us up?” I heard Archer ask from somewhere behind me.

“Just wait for it.” Gramps retorted as he stepped into the periphery of my vision and leaned against the parapets. “Whenever you’re ready Endeavor.”

As Gramps said that the afternoon sun began to dim, before giving way to a massive shadow over the entire field. Down in the trenches I could hear some barely audible gasps as Endeavor became visible right over the city. “I take it that you had Amore rig the shields up to act as some sort of cloak?” I asked as I turned my attention to the massive cruiser hovering a few hundred feet above us.d

“What was your first clue?” Gramps retorted.

I turned back to the field and saw the first of a dozen fifty millimeter tracer rounds crash into one of the columns of war mechs. The first two immediately erupted into fireballs, and the whooshing of liquid fuel igniting could be barely heard above the hum of Endeavor’s engines. As the mechs collapsed to the ground the entire front line of the lizard army stopped dead. “Blaze Squad, get ready to move.”

My words were followed by the sounds of magazines sliding home and safeties clicking off. “We’re just on deck to back Lion-O up, so where would we go?” Archer asked.

“I’d just rather that we be ready in case we’re needed.” I retorted. Off in the distance I could see the forms of Lion-O and his companions staring down the army of Lizards. “Pumyra, do you think Mumm-Ra will actually make an appearance?”

“I don’t see why he wouldn’t.” Pumyra said. “His army has us all-” She stopped as a silver and black tank raced forward through the lines of the Lizard army, skidding to a stop well before reaching Lion-O. “Well that’s it. He’s here.”

The tank opened up and from our perch everyone could make out the tall armored form of Mumm-Ra towering above his opponents. “Don’t think I forgot about you Commander.” Mumm-Ra’s voice whispered in my ear.

“Did you hear that?” I wondered aloud.

“Hear what?” Gramps asked.

“Mumm-Ra. He’s projecting himself.” Pumyra replied. “Don’t worry, I heard him too. You’re not crazy.”

“But did you hear this?”

CRACK!

The sudden blow against the back of my helmet knocked me forward, and as I smacked into the parapet I dropped my rifle down the side of the wall. “Oh shit!” I heard Archer yell.

“Damnit, why can’t the bad guys stay dead?”

I felt Pumyra drag me back, and as I turned around I could see exactly what had both Gramps and Archer so worried. It was a ghost from our distant past, metal facial reconstructions and all. “De Witt…” I growled.

“He’s not the only one.” Another voice added.

As I got to my feet I saw that opposite of De Witt was another blast from the past. “West Wind? I saw Kovac blow your head off!” As I yelled I noticed something important; from our restricted position the two old enemies had us surrounded. “Wait a minute… This has to be Mumm-Ra’s doing.”

“Ding ding ding, we’ve got a winner!” West Wind shouted as he started clapping. “Come on, let’s give the genius a round of applause!”

“Mumm-Ra must have revived them.” Pumyra whispered.

“Ya, no shit.” I muttered back.

“What do we do Dusk?” Archer asked.

For a moment I paused to review the situation. We had two ostensibly powerful individuals ready to throw down, and for all we know Mumm-Ra might have juiced up both of them. But there was only one thing to do. “Blaze Squad, engage!” I shouted as I lunged at West Wind.

Pumyra was right with me as I slammed into West Wind’s torso. Neither of us hit the floor, only sliding a few feet. As Pumyra tried to land a punch on West Wind, the pegasus grabbed her arm and tossed her to the ground with what looked like little effort. “Come on Dusk, you’re gonna let some lackey try to take me?”

“Shut your fucking trap!” I yelled as I wheeled back, before delivering a full-boot kick to the center of West Wind’s chest. The pegasus staggered back out of my reach under the blow before he managed to catch his bearings.

“And what makes you-” West Wind stopped dead as a long silver blade erupted from the center of his chest. “Ah hell.”

Pumyra ripped the knife out and wheeled around the wounded pegasus, coming to a stop off to my left. “So what’s wrong with this picture?” She asked.

It didn’t take much to figure out what Pumyra meant. Where she had stabbed West Wind there was no blood. Instead through the tear in his jacket there was a pale purple glow. “Son of a bitch, these boneheads are magical constructs!”

“Do you think that make me any less tough?” West Wind asked me.

I took the knife from Pumyra and shrugged. “We’re about to find out.” West Wind tried to step back as I lunged forward, but I was simply too quick for the pegasus. The knife hit home right in the top of his right shoulder. As the blade tore clear there wasn’t any blood or torn flesh, but a burst of purple light.

West Wind couldn’t remain standing at that point and collapsed to the ground in a rather unceremonious manner. “Do you really think that this is going to stop me?” He groaned.

“You’re the one-”

UMPH!

Suddenly something slammed into me from behind. It took a few seconds but when I finally caught my bearings I noticed that the wall was far below me, while in the corner of my eye I could make out the grey hull of the Endeavor. “Tell me Commander, are you afraid of heights?” De Witt yelled.

In the bottom corner of my HUD I could see two things. One was a flashing message ‘thrusters ready’, while the other was a quickly growing yellow dot on my motion tracker. “I’m not, but you should be!”

As the two of us were rocked by both a sonic boom and the massive impact of familiar armored pegasus I fell free of De Witt’s grasp and started falling back towards the ground, now at least a thousand feet below. “Shit!” I kicked the thrusters in and instead of falling straight down I was pushed into the hull of the Endeavor. As I slid down along the upper slope I realized that I was quickly running out of ground to stop on. But I still had Pumyra’s knife, and thank Celestia that it was tough enough to slow me down, and my feet came to a rest off the side of the upper hull slope. “That was close…” I muttered as I hauled myself to my feet.

“Dusk, are you alright?” Archer yelled over the radio.

“I’m fine.” I assured her. “Are you all still good down there?”

“Not even a little. Dusk, West Wind keeps getting back up every time we hit him… You have any ideas?”

I turned my head skyward to watch the aerial sparring match that Cloud Runner had thrown himself into with De Witt… Although it looked far more like a slug-fest between the armored pony and the magical griffon construct. “I’ve got nothing Archer. Whatever these two are, I don’t think we can readily put them down.”

“Well they’re dark magic, aren’t they?” Pumyra asked. “So allow me to pose a question. Who on this battlefield is the only one that’s really fluent in it?”

“Mumm-Ra…” I muttered as I peered off the edge of the hull, down at a series of red and purple flashes out in the field. “Does Lion-O have a radio on him?”

“I doubt it!”

“Then let’s hope he’s smart enough to duck!” As the thruster warning flashed on my HUD once more I dove off the side of Endeavor and blasted towards what was likely a titanic battle between two arch enemies. As I picked up speed the shield indicator flashed, and along my arms I could see the shields flickering as they ran up to 120% capacity. Rapidly gaining speed I finally could make out the cat and the demon locked in a duel, one that Lion-O didn’t seem to be winning. But he must have figured that something was up, because he leapt back and dropped to the ground. Mumm-Ra didn’t bother moving, and I slammed shoulder-first right into his chest before bouncing off him and crashing into the ground a few feet away from where he stood.

“Why Commander Dusk, is that the best that you can do?” Mumm-Ra taunted.

As I got back to my feet I felt a hand grab onto my right shoulder. “What the hell was that!?” Lion-O yelled.

“That was supposed to knock tall dark and brooding on his ass!” I replied. “Look, we need to finish this fight. Mumm-Ra has constructs hitting us on the wall and we can’t take them out! We finish him, then those constructs will probably fade.”

“Wait, constructs?” Lion-O asked.

“I’ll explain later!” I yelled as I pulled Lion-O out of the path of one of Mumm-Ra’s blasts. “Right now we’ve got work to do!”

BOOM!

While distracted by responding to Lion-O a second bolt of black magic scored a hit at both of our feet, tossing the two of us backwards. As I came to a stop the alarms in my helmet dedicated to the shields started blaring at a far more rapid pace than I had heard before. I glanced up and internally groaned. Instead of a flashing bar representing the depleted shields, inside the bar were two flashing red letters; emitter malfunction. “You alright?” Lion-O called out.

As I got to my feet I pulled my helmet off and tossed it to the side. “I’ll live. What about you?”

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Lion-O rolling his shoulder around. “I could say the same. Now do you have any bright ideas?”

I threw up a magical shield bubble as Mumm-Ra tossed another bolt of his dark energy at the two of us. “We need to punch through that armor first, and I know just how to do it!”

“With what? You’re unarmed!”

I shrugged and hit the comm button on my left gauntlet. “Endeavor, I need a fire mission on my position!”

“Is that wise Commander?” I heard Grey ask over the channel.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s smart, just do it!” I forced Lion-O down and pumped more power into my shield. I could feel it fluxuate as Mumm-Ra hammered on it with his charged fists, and as I forced the strength of the barrier up in response I felt a bead of sweat run down from my temple.

BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

The shield nearly fell as four missiles slammed into the ground, kicking up dirt and debris in addition to delivering massive shockwaves as they erupted into balls of fire and shrapnel. Once the ringing stopped I dropped my shield and dragged the king back to his feet. “Do you think that did it?”

Suddenly the dust was blasted clear and a battered Mumm-Ra could be seen towering over the two of us. “Do you need an answer to that question?” I groaned.

As Mumm-Ra started swinging his sword down the two of us split, and it slammed down into the dirt where we were standing only moments before. “Commander, I was going to wait to kill you. But I obviously need to kill both of you pests right now!”

The dark master started pulling back on his sword, but it was caught in the ground and he couldn’t seem to pick it up, leaving the flat side of the massive blade facing skyward. In that moment I came up with an incredibly bad idea, and used the blade as a jumping-off point to scramble up and over Mumm-Ra, wrapping one of my arms around his neck to hold me on his back. “Then how about I annoy you some more!” With my free hand I smacked a bolt of golden electricity into the back of Mumm-Ra’s helmet.

GRAGH!!!

Mumm-Ra started bucking around the moment my bolt hit him, likely trying to toss me off him. But as he took one arm and tried to reach back to grab me, he left the one arm with it’s massive gauntlet exposed. Lion-O clearly saw that there was some significance to that piece of his armor and started slashing at it with his own blade. “What are you- STOP THAT!”

As he tried to get clear of Lion-O I delivered another bolt of magic into the back of his helmet. Mumm-Ra ended up standing fast, and continued to try to swat me off him. But at one last clink of metal against metal I saw Lion-O leap back with a rounded green stone clearly in his hand. “Hey, look what I found!” Lion-O yelled, waving the stone as if to taunt Mumm-Ra.

Clearly Mumm-Ra wasn’t all that happy to see what Lion-O was holding, as he stopped trying to get me of his back and dropped to his knee. As his armor began to dissolve into what I could only describe as black smoke, he made some noise that sounded like a primal growl. “You’ll pay for this Thundercat!”

“No he won’t!” I retorted as I dropped off Mumm-Ra’s back and threw another bolt of magical energy into the dark lord’s back. That blast forced the now unarmored (and slightly shorter) down onto his hands and knees as Mumm-Ra seemed to struggle to stay up.

Of course Mumm-Ra couldn’t stay up and collapsed, panting as white wisps of vapor and smoke started coming off of his blue flesh. Behind us I heard the thuds of two sets of feet. “You two best watch yourselves!” I heard West Wind yell.

But Lion-O didn’t seem to pay much mind to the pegasi’s warning. As he lifted his sword and rested it on his shoulder I could see his expression solidify in something close to a scowl. “No… Not today!” As he lifted his sword above his head I saw both West Wind and De Witt brush past me as they tried to stop the Lord of the Thundercats-

BANG!

-Only for both sides of the confrontation to fail miserably as a rifle spoke and a round slammed into the side of Mumm-Ra’s head. He didn’t even make a noise. Hell, there wasn’t even any blood, only the instant change of flesh to dust that began to blow away on the breeze. Both Lion-O and I turned to the source of the commotion, and at least I was rather happy with what I was looking at. Pumyra, missing the armor and undersuit from both her arms while looking like she had just gone ten rounds against a professional boxer, was holding the still-smoking rifle that had been turned on our foe.

“...Well that was anticlimactic.” I muttered. But I noticed something important. As Mumm-Ra’s body kept blowing away both De Witt and West Wind were still standing around, the pegasus glaring at me while the griffon had his attention turned to Pumyra. “Shouldn’t you two have disappeared?”

“Did you ever consider that neither of us are here because of Mumm-Ra?” De Witt asked.

“Honestly? The thought never crossed my mind.” I retorted as I took up a fighting stance. “So what are you two doing here? Are you just out for some other-worldly revenge?”

“You could say that…” West Wind droned.

“Just know that there is more at work here than you know.” De Witt added. Suddenly the pair started to fade, and I heard De Witt chuckle. “We will meet again Commander. You can count on that.” And with that both De Witt and West Wind disappeared, not even leaving behind a trace of their presence.

“I guess now we just need to worry about that army…” I muttered.

“No we don’t.” Pumyra said as she wove her rifle in the direction of Mumm-Ra’s army of Lizards. “They’re retreating.” Pumyra wasn’t kidding. As I turned my gaze towards the massed lines of infantry and war machines I could clearly tell that the lot of them were turning tail. “So what do we do now?”

Author's Note

And there's the end of this second story arc, and we've recruited another member to the Blaze Squad roster! Next week we start out with one more stop, and then we're home free... Home free being back into another cluster-f.

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-Striker