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Tygra hated giving speeches. It didn't mattered what kind of speeches; reports to the other Thundercats, press conferences or what not. He hated getting up in front of hundreds of people to read some canned speech that anybody could have read; he was a scientist, not a politician.
But here he was now, stand up in front of hundreds of thunderans, humans and snarfs, decatating the Snarf University's new Nuclear Chemistry building. A wealthy snarf, one of the old snarf royalty, one Lord Olden, had donated all the money to have this building built and fully equipped with the latest technology, much of which was shipped in from Altar Prime. The build was completed in 2 months and the Dean of the University had asked Tygra to give a speech at the detication.
Something had didn't add up to Tygra; Olden wasn't chemist. He wasn't even a scientist; he was businessman. Why would the owner of the largest depterment story chain in the Snarfia donated over a hundred million credits to have a lab built?
But that wasn't the only thing on Tygra's mind. Yesterday, he had helped Lion-O, Wily Kit, and Lynx-O out of a jam. The S.S. Claudis had been attacked by terrorists and Tygra had helped the others defeat these "Fists of the Old Order". The two that they had captured had given them no information what so ever. And to add some icing to the cake, Ben-Gali had been attacked my these lunatics and the Cat's Lair's Database had been wiped out. Thankfully, backup of the database is stored in the Tower of Omens on Third Earth. As soon as he was done here, Panthro and Pumrya would be taking the Feliner and pick up the new database.
Tygra was broken out of his pondering when the dean said his name and motioned for him to take the podium. Tygra got up and took his noted and sat them on the on the podium.
Before Tygra could start his speech, a loud hiss went over the PA. Everyone in the crowd, even the humans who didn't have as good of hearing, covered their ears.
"Attention citizens of Carlhall,' a deep baritone voice said, "You will be an example today. Repeatedly, the Thundercats have shown that they are unfit to rule the Thunderean Empire. The Galactic Consul has turned down our petitions time and time again. It is time for new leaders! And the Fists of the Old Order will bring the Empire back to its glory before the likes of Jaga and Claudis ruled. In this building, there is nuclear bomb. A bomb that will level most of this city and and rain nuclear ash all over the country side. That is, unless, the Thundercats give control of the Empire over to us within the hour."
There was a pause. "And just in case anyone tries to play "hero", there are snipers on the roofs of the nearby buildings. They will shoot anyone trying to leave this court yard. Good day." The PA shut off. Tygra knew that the final part of the message was targeted at him.
But he just couldn't stand around and let them blow up Carlhall. Tygra was tempted to turn invisible, but if these "Fists" could get their hands on a nuke, then they could easily get their hands on some ultra-sound sites that would allow them to Tygra when his was invisible.
He got an idea. He ran up to the podium, grabbed it and threw it into the crowd. The citizen's got out of the way and the Architect hoped it was enough to draw the attention of the Snipers.
"Hey Fists!" he yelled defiantly. "Shoot me! C'mon ya rebel bastards, shoot me!"
A loud 'ka-baam' rang through the court-yard and a patch of concrete was tore up at Tygra feet. The tiger grinned and yelled, "Thank you!" Tygra jumped hi into the air and lashed his whip out the roof of a nearby dorm. The whip wrapped around a shadowy object. Tygra landed and gave a swift tug. A lithe looking panther with a large rifle came flying down to the bricked walk below. He land with a loud "thud" as most of the bones in his body broke.
Several more shots ran out and Tygra realized that there were more snipers than he could deal with. He made a mad dash for the laboratory. In front of him, the plate glass doors of the lab were blasted apart by a high power energy weapon. 'Thanks,' Tygra though. 'Saves me the trouble of opening the doors.'
Tygra dashed down a side hall and was knocked down when he ran into somebody. Not wanting to take any chances, he took his whip and tied up the person with it. He quickly turned around to make sure that no one was following him, he almost missed the whimpering from behind him. He turned around to see that it wasn't a terrorist he had subdued; it was student.
She was a Siberian tiger who appeared to be in her early twenties. She had short brown hair with the front locks bleached white. Her eyes were a cold gray color. She was wearing the jeans and tee- shirt that was ever the craze among college students, ever sense they had been found on Third Earth. She was very startled from Tygra's attack and was on the verge of tears.
"I'm sorry," Tygra said quietly. "Let me get you out." He undid the whip and she brushed herself off. "What are you doing hear? Didn't you hear, there's a bomb in the building!"
"I'm a student at U of T in Thundera City," she said, obviously scared of the Thundercat. "I was one of the Computer Techs that Lord Olden had come in to make sure everything was running. I just got done installing the Mainframe for the Super Collider."
"How well do you know this building?" Tygra asked
"Pretty well why...." She stopped in mid sentence. "Oh, no. I am not helping you find that bomb."
"Well, its a nuclear bomb. And less you can fly or have some super-sonic transport, you're gonna fell it."
She sighed. "Alright, I'll help you find it. If it would be anywhere, it would be in the basement. Follow me."
They ran done an emergency stairwell to the basement entrance. The door was bolted shut from the other side. Tygra backed up and rammed the door with his shoulder. After several tries, the door flung up and the tiger walked through.
The Basement was a laberiyth of pipes and service tunnels. It would take hours to find the bomb, a luxury they didn't have. They went down one of the tunnels, ducking so as not to bump into a pipe. The tunnels were incredibly dark. The steam in the pipes made the tunnel unbearably warm for the tigers. The tunnel up into a large room with a large lead dome in the center of it.
"This is where they store the fissionable materials," she said, pointing at the dome. "There isn't a lot in there, only a couple hundred pounds of uranium- 238."
Then it dawned on Tygra. He ran over to the door into the storage facility but it had a lock on it. He turned around. "You're a computer tech; can you open this door?"
"Yeah, but why would you want to get into there?"
"It makes perfect sense. If you were a terrorist and was going to nuke a Nuclear Chemistry lab, where would you put the bomb?"
"The fissionable materials storage," she said. She came to the same conclusion Tygra did. She went over to the keypad and after several minutes of typing, the door slide open.
"Be careful," she called in. "I don't know what kind of shielding they have set up in there."
Tygra walked into the room and saw something that he did not want to see; a briefcase sized plastic box sat in the middle of the room. A cylinder ran from the box to microwave sized chuck of uranium. On the top of the box was a number pad and a LCD display. Tygra reached into his pocket and pulled out a utility knife.
Carefully unscrewing the front plate, he said to himself, "Its always the red one, its always the red one."
The plate fell to the ground and he was greeted by lots of red wires. He mumbled, "Pycshos", under his breath. He studied the bomb for several minutes. Nervously, he took a wire in his hand and cut it with the knife.
Tygra prepared himself for the blast that never came. He opened his eyes and let out a sigh of relief. The countdown on LCD display had stopped. He had saved Carlhall, no, the entire Valley of the Snarfs from total destruction.
Behind him, he heard screams of terror. Running out of the storage area, He say two thugs, both armed with machine pistols and long combat knifes. One had his back to Tygra, the other was attacking the student; she already had a large gash running the entire length of her right arm. Both were wearing black body suits, flak jackets, and masks.
Neither of them knew what hit them. In one fell swoop, Tygra jumped kicked the thug closest to him while knocking the other one back with his whip. The kicked one fell to the ground, unconscious with some broken ribs. His pal, on the other hand, wasn't down yet. He took his pistol and let a spray of bullets fly in Tygra's direction. The architect dodged the spray and clotheslined the punk. He fell to the ground, arms flailing. His land knocked him out.
He ran over to the student. She was tightly holding her arm and was crying softly. He went over to one of the thugs and removed his mask, reviling a lion. He took the mask and made a make-shift band aid. He sat beside her and tried conforting her.
After a few minutes Panthro, followed by several of Carlhall's finest ran in.
"What the frag is going on?" Panthro said.
"I disarmed the nuke with her help. The this punks attacked," Tygra said.
Panthro nodded. "I'll call for an Medi-Vac. C'mon, let the police handle this."
Tygra picked up the student. Caring her, Tygra and Panthro returned to the courtyard outside the building. The police had roped off the entire area. The Media were at the edges of the courtyard, trying to be the first one with the story. A Medical helicopter made its landing in the center of the square. Tygra walked over to the helicopter and laid the student onto a stretcher. He said, "Thank you for your help. By the way, what's your name?"
She coughed, "Aquin. You're welcome Tygra."
He smiled. He hoped she would be all right. Panthro tapped him on the shoulder. "Lion-O want to have a council meeting. We better go."
The two Thundercats began to walk towards the Feliner.