HMS Endeavor, Main Observation Lounge
Dusk

It took the better part of an hour to gather the entourage that was present during the events in Thundera, but for the breadth of that time I was watching Pumyra stare out the lounge windows across the vast ocean the cruiser was hovering over. She was deep in thought and for good reason. I’ve seen adversaries crop up time and time again after I had believed they were dead, but this wasn’t another case where there was a chance I was wrong. She had shot Mumm-Ra in the head, and I was there to see the whole thing play out.

“Alright, now that everyone is here we should get down to business.” Faust said, catching the collective attention of the room. “By now you all understand why we’re here. Bengali here has reason to believe that Mumm-Ra is alive. If he is still in play, then we need to act decisively. I don’t need to tell you lot that he’s powerful, but if Mumm-Ra stays on the board then it’ll only be a matter of time before we will have to contend with him and Euripides simultaneously. So with everything quiet for the moment we need to take Mumm-Ra out now before he manages to reamass his power.”

“Uh, question. What’s with all this ‘we’ stuff?” Felix asked.

“Because I will be accompanying the group that goes with Bengali.”

“Then why ask me for a favor?” I pointed out. “Seems to me you’re more than capable of handling this whole Mumm-Ra thing yourself.”

“Because I can’t fight Mumm-Ra and protect the Thunderans at the same time. Nor can I locate Lion-O while Mumm-Ra and his forces are at work, and we will need Lion-O’s experience with mystical artifacts if there’s to be any chance we can lock Mumm-Ra away permanently.”

“Can you at least tell me how Mumm-Ra is still alive?” Pumyra finally asked as she turned away from the window.

“He likely managed to reconstitute himself. From what Starswirl learned during his travels his body isn’t flesh and blood anymore. It seems that during his original imprisonment his body died while his power maintained his physical form. From what I can tell he can’t be killed, but there are artifacts on Third Earth that can trap him again.”

“Then what did shooting him in the head do?”

“More than likely it destabilized his power and drained him. It would take decades for him to return to full strength.”

“Oh come on, that’s bullshit.” Cosmo spat. “You don’t have hard evidence, so you’re guessing.”

But Faust simply shrugged. “Would you rather have me sugar coat it? Because I can’t think of a good way to do that. At bare minimum some of us are going to have to go deal with this problem, and it will be very dangerous.”

“Then why are we going? We’ve got way more important concerns right now!”

“Cosmo, if we were talking about anyone else I’d be in corner one hundred percent, but Faust is right.” I said, likely cutting off whatever answer Faust had in mind. “I’ve gone toe to toe with Mumm-Ra, you haven’t. He is nothing to sneer at, and he certainly could be a major threat. Euripides can at least send his lackies across all of reality seemingly at will. What’s to stop him from bringing Mumm-Ra here and doubling his firepower?”

Cosmo still wasn’t convinced, and I doubt any amount of talking would help him understand the reasoning we were tangling with. “Really Dusk?” He finally asked. “What makes you think this Mumm-Ra would align himself with Euripides?”

“Because he’ll want revenge against me, and probably Dusk.” Pumyra added. “Take it from someone with first hand knowledge, Mumm-Ra does not take defeat lightly, regardless of how minor. It won’t matter if he and Euripides have interests that don’t align, if Mumm-Ra gets an opportunity for revenge he will take it regardless of the cost.”

“So he’s a superpowered ego-maniac? Just great…” Cosmo muttered. “All right, so who’s going?”

“I’ve already figured that out Cosmo.” I said. “Just me, Pumyra, Faust and Bengali. The fewer of us that go, the likely that our absence will immediately be noticed.”

“You’ll have to add Dawn and Jorge to list Dusk, but your point is sound. Of course there’s no reason to worry about our absence attracting attention.” Faust added.

“And why would that be?”

“Because I already informed both of my daughters that you and Pumyra would be out of contact for a few days while you accompanied me on an expedition.”

Of course Faust already has the details covered, so I shouldn’t be all that surprised. “When do we leave?” I asked.

Faust abruptly rose from her chair and started heading for the door. “Right now.”

***

The Slums of Thundera, Some Time Later…

As whatever magic Faust used to bring us back to Thundera crackled away, I started recognizing some of the buildings from our previous visit a few days ago. Now, the passage of far more time on this end meant there was far less rubble lying around, but the city still felt deserted. “Alright, this is right where you left from Dawn.” I heard Faust say.

And that logically brought up an interesting question. “Did Dawn happen to run into Bengali while she was here? And what exactly was she doing here anyway?”

“Post-stabilization damage assessments.” My daughter replied. “Reality definitely stabilized after you got home, but the original points in time that the universes originally lined up against shifted. I checked every one that you stopped off in, and excluding this one the shift was only off by a few days.”

“What do the eggheads call that, time dilation?” I muttered.

“I’d be lying if I said I understood a word of that, but what’s with the massive discrepancy?” Jorge asked as he shifted his cloak to better hide the armor he wore underneath it.

“Couldn’t find a reason big man.” Dawn answered. “At least those muggers seem to have run off…”

“You rescued Bengali from muggers?”

Dawn nodded. “Yup. Got him to safety, he recognized I was an Equestrian and started babbling on about what he had been doing to locate the King, yada yada. One thing led to another and I decided to bring him back to talk to Faust.”

Forcing parental instincts that had been triggered by Dawn’s explanation to the side I turned my attention to Bengali. “So where are we going first?”

“Well, home. That’s where I have everything… And my parents have probably been worried sick. I don’t usually take off for more than a few hours without mentioning what I’m up to.” The white cat admitted.

As Bengali led us into the more active parts of the city, I couldn’t help but wonder what else had changed. Most of these buildings appear brand new, or at least newer. But there were a lot more Thunderans about, mixed with other species I didn’t recognize from the last visit. A handful seemed to pay some mind to us, but for the most part our group was ignored. But as we cleared through a familiar gate into the plaza outside the palace entrance, I grabbed Bengali’s shoulder and led the group to a halt. “I thought you said you were going home?”

“Uh, this is home.” Bengali said. “Members of the royal family do tend to live in the palace.”

“Then who exactly are your parents?” Pumyra asked, finally managing to say something.

“Get away from my son!”

Everything began unfolding rapidly. Jorge flung off his cloak, blasted to the front of the group and hefted his chain gun up. Dawn had her cloak turned back and pulled some bow and arrow out of thin air… All while the rest of us were standing there looking like buffoons. “I wouldn’t if I were you, drop your weapons!”

“Unless you have a death wish, I’d do what the walking tank says.” Dawn added.

After a few moments I finally came to my senses and threw back my hood. “Jorge, Dawn, stand down!” I shouted as I put myself between them and the horde of guards that had assembled so far. As I turned to face the guards, I immediately recognized the cat that was in charge. “Tygra?”

“What the… Stand down, they’re friendly.” The now older cat made his way past his guards to get within arm’s reach of us. “It’s been too damn long Dusk.”

“Let’s worry about the formalities later, shall we?” Faust said as she forced her way to the front. “I’m going to need access to the antiquities section of the archives immediately.”

Tygra cocked an eyebrow and glanced over at me. “Who is she?”

I had to think about it for a moment. “Well… Faust here is technically my great grandmother.”

“Technically?”

“Ya… She’s family, although I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing yet.”

“Wouldn’t that be a good thing?”

“Normally I’d say so, but since we left the bullshit keeps getting worse. At this point I would have to say we’re somewhere between apocalyptic and extinction level threats.”

Tygra looked somewhat confused. “And how long has this been going on?”

“Well we saw you last what, a week ago? So I’d have to say it started about an hour after that.” Judging by the changing expression on Tygra’s face I’d say he was floored. “I think we better trade notes…”

***

Castle Throne Room, Ten Minutes Later

“So… Any questions?” I asked once I finished my spiel.

Tygra, obviously, was the only other Thunderan present. “Just one… She’s your daughter?” He said, pointing at Dawn.

“Yup.”

“Doesn’t that come across a bit weird? That your daughter is almost half your age?”

“Eh, kinda. I still haven’t hit the crippling emotional repercussions yet… Although my ‘dad sense’, assuming that’s actually a thing, seems to keep flaring up.”

“Wait, what?” Dawn asked.

“Well I can’t help but get a bit suspicious after hearing you and a boy were off on your own.”

“Are you kidding me?!”

I shrugged. “I kinda wish I was.”

“I think we’re getting a bit off track… I know that you lot are the reason Bengali has been missing, and thank you for bringing him home. But I get the impression you wouldn’t bring a soldier in power armor with a massive cannon along if something else wasn’t going on.” Tygra observed.

“And you would be right. We’re here about Mumm-Ra.” Faust replied.

“Ugh…” Tygra said as he gripped the bridge of his nose. “I take it you must’ve talked with Bengali.”

“But father-”

“Ben, please.” Tygra said, seeming far calmer than normal. “We haven’t seen any sign of Mumm Ra since before you were born. And you’re running on a hunch that he could be responsible for your Uncle’s disappearance without-”

But Faust cut the cat off. “While you’re right that your son is lacking hard evidence that he’s responsible for your brother’s disappearance, Bengali is certainly correct that Mumm Ra is still alive. He hasn’t been flesh and blood for centuries, just energy. And he most certainly is reconstituting himself.”

“And just how do you know that? Pumyra put a bullet through his head.”

“Because Pumyra wasn’t the first to strike Mumm-Ra down.” Faust stated in a matter-of-fact manner. “He escaped a few centuries after his original imprisonment, and my husband struck him down. But he was around for long enough to notice his power coalescing and sealed him away in his sarcophagus again.”

“Hey, that would’ve been something to know!” I snapped.

“That’s why I’m telling you now. This is the place to share that information.” Faust countered. “In your archives there are plans for a spirit chamber of some sort. I need to get those plans so I can fabricate one.”

“Ok… But what’s to stop Mumm-Ra from escaping again in the future? If what you’re telling me is true he’s already escaped imprisonment twice already. And better yet, how do you trap him in this ‘spirit chamber’ anyway?”

“That’s where we’ll need your brother’s help, and while I work on assembling the chamber Dusk and Pumyra will go find him.”

“Wait, what?” Pumyra asked.

“Yes, you and Dusk will go find Lion-O. His experience with those power stones of his is going to be vital. They defeated Mumm-Ra once before, so they can do it again. If he’s weaker it’ll make it far easier for me to trap force his essence into the chamber.”

But Tygra rolled his eyes. “You still haven’t answered my first question.”

He was right. What would stop Mumm-Ra from escaping again? “Could we nuke the chamber and vaporize the bastard?” Jorge asked.

“Eh… Maybe, but I wouldn’t count it as a guaranteed method.”

“Mumm-Ra would still be vulnerable in the chamber though, at least as long as he’s trapped… What’s to stop us from chucking the whole thing into a black hole?” I offered.

The Thunderans in the room looked confused, likely not entirely familiar with the destructive astronomical phenomenon, but by the looks of everyone else I hit on a golden idea. “Keep that in mind Dusk.”

By that point Tygra seemed convinced and started leading our group to the archives, Pumyra pulled me off to the side. “You do realize that we’re in over our heads here, right?”

I shrugged. “I don’t see how that’s something new.”

“We don’t have anything to go on, and neither of us are trackers. How do you think we’re going to find Lion-O? It seems that he’s a rather big part of the plan that Faust hasn’t clued us completely into.”

“You’re not wrong… But I don’t see any better options.”

Pumyra just shook her head in disbelief. “You’re certainly Mister Positive…”

“Oh come on, what would you have me do? Bitch and moan? Just look at it like this; there’s probably someone out there dealing with something a lot worse than what we’re stuck with.”

Well, at least I hope so...

Author's Note

And we continue to move on, while I slowly finish up the writing in this story arc. By the time this is over we'll have more repercussions that'll feed into Lost and Damned before I move onto a Rush-centric story arc. Stay tuned for more!

Anyone got questions? Like what you're seeing so far? Hell, maybe have some gripes? There's a comment section and the Mirrorverse Codex. Read and comment away, because I want to hear from you fellow denizens of this corner of the internet. Until next time gang!
-Striker