Disclaimer: ThunderCats belongs to Warner Bros. and Cartoon Network. The other, belongs to Universal Pictures.
Author Notes: This serves as some sort of preview of what's to come. These are just simply random scenes for any of my upcoming crossovers with the 2011 reboot of ThunderCats. So in other words, I'm just simply testing out these concepts to see if they'll work out and if they do, good for me. But of course considering the new episodes are set to air in a few weeks (March 24th at 9:30 a.m. for those who don't know) so alot of these concepts might have changes depending on how the Lion-O trials will go. That's all I have to say pretty much and hope you enjoy.
The three male ThunderCats raced back to the Thundertank. However, the ground imploded right in front of them sending them flying a foot back with dirt flying all over them.
Out of the dust was the same creature from last night. It shouted a mighty roar as it rose from the ground. All three had looks of fear on their faces while stunned upon seeing it in close range. Suddenly, the creature began to wobble, it was losing its balance after standing for a second or two and it began to descend on them.
"Look out!" Lion-O shouted to his comrades as he leapt out of the way as did Panthro and Tygra.
The creature flopped to the ground after falling, groaning all the way.
The three stood up staring at the creature, confused that the creature didn't up and attack them right away. Instead, it gave off a sickly groan. Not even bothering to even notice the male ThunderCats.
"Am' I missing something?" Tygra asked sardonically.
The three continued to stare at the creature, wondering if they should destroy it now or actually care for it. Or do nothing.
The future king gulped as he cautiously approached the creature two steps at a time.
"What are you doing?" Tygra hissed at his brother, assuming he was risking his own life.
Two steps at a time due to a possibility of sudden movement; at least it seemed like it after the lack of movement as the creature continued to groan.
He lifted his right hand and raised it forward as he approached the creature at close range. He began to sweat more than ever as he prepared to touch the creature's sides. His fingers wriggled, he began to wonder if he should back out now and just let it be. Nevertheless, he pressed his hand on the creature's skin and felt the side of its chest as he closed his eyes shut out of fear, expecting it to eat him.
Nothing.
He raised one eye open to check for anything frightening but then opened both of them full time and saw that nothing had happened.
The creature's chest inflated like a balloon, a sign that it was at least breathing. Lion-O felt its heartbeat, a bit slow but it seemed healthy but no doubt sick.
Tygra and Panthro continued to stare in confusion until Panthro decided to move forward seeing that nothing had happened yet.
Tygra was the last to join in. The two approached the creature with caution but touched it regardless, all feeling its breathing.
"I think it's sick." Lion-O deduced judging by the creature's breathing.
The lizard men were successfully driven out, the random Graboid out of nowhere had done its job had it not attacked the ThunderCats as well.
"Okay, that settles it," Lion-O had decided on a new course of action as Tygra walked away. "We'll just regroup with Cheetara and the others, leave the creature here and hopefully think of something."
"Guys, we have a problem!" His brother called out to Panthro and Lion-O.
Heeding to the call, the two dashed to the creature spotting Tygra on the other side of the creature's body. They arrived there to find him stunned. They looked into his direction and to find the very thing that startled him; the left side of the creature's belly had burst open leaving a bloody, orange colored mess splattered all over the ground.
"By Thundera," Panthro stared in shock. "How did we not hear this?"
Lion-O's eyes then laid eyes on the ground. The new sight shocked him even more.
"That's the least of our problems." He pointed to the ground. "Look."
The two other ThunderCats looked into his direction; their blood ran cold upon seeing it. A dozen trail of three-toed footprints from the creature's blood heading north. While the trail was a mess, it was clear that they were looking at footprints of something. Finally, they noticed three sets heading in one direction and three others the next.
"Swell." Panthro sardonically said as the three walked over the three set of footprints. "They can walk now."
"Alright, we need to stop these things here and now." Lion-O said before turning to both Tygra and Panthro. "Panthro, follow the footprints that were heading east. Tygra, you and me will trail the footprints heading west."
"You're serious?" Tygra raised an eyebrow regarding his brother's orders. "You still want us to trail these things?"
"We can't let these things roam loose. They'll go after anyone who stands in their way." Lion-O retorted.
With that, he ran off to the west after them.
"Lion-O, damn it!" Tygra shouted in frustration as he ran off, chasing his brother whilst joining him on the chase. Panthro was at a loss because of what just happened but all he knew was that that the whole experience was getting weirder and weirder.
The noise continued to grow as did the apparent shrieking.
"Great ready." Lion-O told his brother as he unsheathed the Sword of Owens from the claw gauntlet.
Tygra drew out the whip and laser gun. Both males were prepared to take on this apparent new form of the creature they had witnessed. Footsteps approached louder and louder from the cave. Finally, the first set of creatures emerged from the darkness of the cave.
Their heads were the same but the body structure lacked the roughness of the first creature. Their skins looked smoother but still rough and the fact that they had two legs but lack any sort of arms whatsoever. Most notable of all, their size was smaller, a nugget compared to the worm creature they had encountered earlier.
"Are they serious?" Tygra almost shouted but bit his tongue to keep quiet. He whispered to Lion-O, "You've be kidding me, how did they shrink that small?"
"I have no clue." Lion-O replied, at a loss for words.
From a Cliffside above in front of the cave, Kaynar witnessed the creature's new form just as he was prepared to assassinate Lion-O. Even he was shocked at the initial appearance of the creature.
"What in the world?" Kaynar widened his eyes, surprised at the creature from his last encounter.
Acting fast, he was prepared to pull the trigger but the creature apparently looked up to see him.
Panthro continued to drive through the night. So far, none of those "things" had appeared on his route, not even the slightest hint of anything. He searched around the desert plains for any sort of creature activity. This was getting ridiculous. While Lion-O and Tygra were out hunting, Cheetara and the kittens out in that deserted wasteland, he was stuck patrolling nothing. For hours, he searched and it was already the middle of the night. The old general sighed and pinched his nose, ready to call it a night. His train of thoughts soon ceased when the vehicle hit a bump.
A rather large bump in the road.
"What the-?" Panthro stammered, startled by the bump.
He was about to leave until he heard a peculiar set of sounds. Shrieking. But it didn't sound natural.
'What is going on?' Panthro thought to himself.
He pressed one of the buttons to open the retractable roof. Once it opened, the shrieks grew louder which further drove him to confusion until he stood up to see the two-legged creatures. He counted at least ten of them shrieking as they gathered around the vehicle. A dozen questions raced through the old general's mind, the very first question, no doubt, as to if these are the second forms of the same worm-like creature. However, that question changed as to what do they think they were doing as soon as one of them jumped on the hood of the Thundertank.
He did not approve of this. Very.
The creature roared at him.
"You've picked the worst day to mess with me, bub." Panthro said to the creature.
His metal hand clenched into a fist. The creature roared the second time and was fully silenced a split second later after one hit.
The cleric examined this apparent artifact; a black rectangular shaped object with tiny white wheels on the back. On the front, there was some sort of writing around the center. Big, bold black letters that read:
Burt Gummer's Survival Guide to Graboids
Volume One
Her eyebrows raised in curiosity. Cheetara had no idea what to do with this object nor did she had any clue as to what it is compared to the rest of the technology she had witnessed from giant robots to high-tech vehicles such as the Thundertank. She wished that Lion-O hadn't gone with Tygra when they decided to explore further in the desert to investigate the mysterious creature they had encountered earlier. It would have been easy to explain to her what this object could possibly, at least if he had the faintest idea. He did go into the slums and knew a dealer who had some experience in technology before the fall of Thundera.
The cleric looked around the shelter, maybe she missed something that would tell her what it is or anything. Her eyes then lay on a black square shaped view screen of sorts standing on some sort of desk with a shelf and wheels. She approached the device and examined it. She looked on the bottom of the screen, it was a word labeled "Sony."
Either it was the name of the view screen or something else. She looked beneath it to discover some sort of rectangular shaped device. This time, the label read "JVC."
On top of them were small stacks of the same small black rectangular objects.
She had to wonder if either the previous owner who had lived here named them himself or he acquired some interesting but aptly named devices.
Cheetara noticed a slot that seemed to fit the shape of the object. Figuring why not, she inserted the object inside. Giving it a small push, it was sucked inside the machine. The noise sounded like gears grinding and a blue light caught her attention. A blue screen with the white words "Play" on the upper left corner in bold letters before being farther away. Finally, the screen turned to black and suddenly, a projection faded in. Green light filled the screen with the wall of text included:
FBI WARNING
FEDERAL LAW PROVIDES SERVERE CIVIL AND CRIMINAL PENALTIES FOR THE UNAURTHORIZED REPRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION OR EXHIBITION OF COPYRIGHTED MOTION PICTURE VIDEOTAPES OR VIDEODISCS. CRIMINAL COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS INVESTIGATED BY THE FBI AND MAY CONSTITUTE A FELONY WITH A MAXIMUM PENALTY OF UP TO FIVE YEARS IN PRISON AND/OR A $25,000.00 FINE
LICENSED FOR PROMOTIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. ANY PUBLIC PERFORMANCE, COPYING OR OTHER USE IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
It would have been interesting if Cheetara understood any of it.
Regardless, the screen had faded to black and image faded into what looked like a sign with the words "El Blanco" painted on the wood.
Then the image changed to a shot of the ground. It moved as if it were water. The image then "pulled back" and stepping inside was a creature no doubt not everyone had seen before. A skinny, white colored thing with hair on top of its lips and wore clothing but it didn't resemble any sort of rag or armor. Lastly, wore some sort of headgear that did not resemble a helmet of sort and its eyes would have been more suited for a helmet.
"Hey you." He spoke with an unusual accent, he sounded like he was about to sprout unknown slang.
The cleric assumed he was talking to her. She pointed to herself as if she were trying to say, "Are you talking to me?"
"Yeah, you." He pointed to the screen as if he answered her question before he pointed to the ground without looking back. "See that over there? Underneath the dirt is El Blanco; half-best friend and half-enemy. Don't even say frenemies, it was a stupid word then and it's a stupid word now so shut it, you lazy teenagers."
Cheetara didn't take an instant liking to him; he seemed rude and stand offish. She didn't understand his attitude, were all hairless creatures similar to him?
The creature walked as he continued to explain while the image "followed" him as he walked away from the El Blanco site.
"Getting back to the subject at hand, my name is Burt Gummer: Part-time survivalist, part time what you refer to as a 'conspiracy nut' quote-unquote, and finally; part-time Graboid expert. Yeah, yeah, there are other people more qualified than me but I've seen these first hand, actually I've survived being eaten by one but I'll get to that story in a moment. The point is, welcome to Graboid Surviving 101. This is the first of the three tapes you'll be seeing. Interested in coming to Perfection, Nevada? Well, if you're going there; you'll need to be prepared. In this tape, I'll teach you how to survive the big nasty ones with no legs and how I survived being swallowed by one."
The so-called volumes were done. Cheetara discovered another object on the desk, a type of book, a journal. She picked up the object; the cover seemed to be made of velvet as her fingers touched it. The title framed on the cover read in cursive writing:
Hiram Gummer
Curious, she opened the journal flipping through various pages containing written entries along with illustrations. The illustration that received her attention was the worm-like creature from an earlier encounter. She read the entry written next to the illustration:
These Dirt Dragons was responsible for the chaos around the mines. I hired Black Hand Kelly to handle the problem but it proved futile, as the monsters had eaten him alive. Despite one being killed by Juan, three more were on the loose. As the situation had grown worse, I panicked. I had to-no, I needed to leave. I had to get the hell out of dodge to get away from the beasts but something in my head told me not to proceed with my departure.
All in due thanks to a telegram, I had received as I bought a train ticket back east.
She turned the page.
I had to do something. I could not leave the town of Rejection to their doom. I ran back but not without protection. As someone said to me before, "It is not important how you spend your money, it's how you spend your life."
A small noise interrupted her just as she was invested in the journal. In an instant, seemingly out of nowhere, the creature burst through the wall roaring. The cleric stumbled back a bit, caught off guard by the creature's presence. It swerved and shook its head back and forth before unleashing its three tongues or tentacles judging by their earlier encounter. She spotted the discarded staff, which had been knocked down by accident due to the creature bursting out of the wall.
She attempted to reach it but the tentacle slapped her hand leaving a drop of slime afterwards. Figuring this thing would not allow her to use her weapon; she had to search for an alternative. She spotted what looked like cylinder shaped canister. Figuring she had nothing to lose, she grabbed one and while a tentacle attempted to prevent her from doing so, she managed to hit it with the bottom end. She ran toward it and began to hit around its head.
The cleric banged it on the creature's head four times, the creature grunting after each hit. The tentacles began to reach her neck, out of desperation, she shoved the cylinder down its mouth and crotched down, avoiding the tentacles. Cheetara was finally able to reach her staff and stood up, prepared to fight the creature once again.
However, in an odd course of action; the creature retracted away, retreating with the shoved object in tow.
Her eyes widened. Did she win? She shook that thought out of her mind, as that was too easy. She examined the hole the creature had left behind. The creature had to have a reason for retreated. It hit her. These Graboids can hear sound, what if, could they? Her eyes widened in horror. The twins were in danger, Wilykit and Wliykat. They could be making noise as she stood here. With a mad dash, her super speed abilities kicking in, she raced out of the shelter to at least prevent the Graboid from going after them.
"Hey Kit, what's Do-Rite-Os?" Wilykat read the label of a red bag labeled "Doritos."
"No idea. I'm still trying to figure out what are Twine-Keys." Wilykit replied as she held a blue colored box labeled "Twinkies."
Kat shrugged and tore open the bag regardless as did Kit when she tore open the small box. The boy picked out what looked like an orange and red colored triangular shaped chip. He sniffed it; he was still unsure of the smell but tasted it regardless. His eyes lit up in delight, it tasted good. He dug through the bag just as his sister unwrapped the small sized bag to see, at least what looked like a piece of yellow colored dung to her. She was hesitant on eating it, what if it was exactly what it looked like.
However, believing her brother would never allow her to live it down. She took a bite as she closed her eyes. To her utter surprise, it tasted like cake. Not as good as an actual one but nevertheless, it tasted good.
Snarf in the meantime, sniffed around the boxes. His reactions ranged from unimpressed to basically, offended looks on his face.
"Hey, you got to try this." Kit approached her brother with the mini-cake in hand. "It actually tastes like cake."
"Really? Want to try this stuff, too?" Kat held up the chip for her to see.
"Sure." Kit broke a piece of the cake as she took the chip whilst giving the cake Kat. Just as she took a bite, she froze. Her eyes began to wide open as plates. She even broke apart the chip she was holding with the other piece still in her mouth but other than that, she had not moved on inch.
While Kat was enjoying the cake, he noticed her wide-eye look.
"What?" He asked with his mouth full in curiosity.
He then looked down to see Snarf standing next to her with a shocked expression on his face. He could have sworn he saw the color drain away from his body.
Tap Tap Tap Tap
He heard a light tap. Kat turned around to see a familiar tentacle outside the window, tapping on the glass.
He turned to face his sister, gasping with a food droppings spitting from his mouth.
The twins and Snarf jumped behind the wooden counter. They hid underneath the counter, they breathed heavily, stunned and scared by the presence of the creature.
"How'd it find us?" Kit asked in a low whisper to her brother.
"I don't know." He whispered his answer.
The door opened, its tentacle tongue was on the knob, and it retracted leaving behind saliva in the process. The twins and Snarf heard footsteps. Last time they checked, that "thing" didn't seem to have feet.
They didn't wish to find out how regardless, all they could do was hope and pray that the monster would go aware.
The now two-legged creature inspected the room. It had heard sound activity around this very location; it had to find the source. The creature grunted as it made its way through. Suddenly, it found the discarded bag of Doritos Kat had dropped upon learning of the creature's presence. The tentacle managed to grab a chip from the discarded bag and managed to taste it. The creature moaned a sound of pleasure.
While the kittens and Snarf shook in fear, Kat began to feel his nose tickling. He was about to sneeze. On the third "Ah," Kit attempted to cease his sneezing but it proved futile, as he sneezed regardless, all over her hand no less.
"Ah-choo!" Kat sneezed on her sister's hand, unable to stop it.
"Eww, eww!" Kit shouted as she shook her hand.
Their eyes widened in fear as the creature had heard judging by the sound of it jumping on the wooden counter. All three looked above to see the monster staring down at them roaring. The twins screamed and scattered away. They were heading toward the door but suddenly, the ground imploded with the same Graboid creature from earlier breaking through the wooden floor and it gave out a mighty roar.
This only prompted them to scream some more.
Panthro grabbed the Shrieker's tongue and whirled around, spinning knocking a few Shriekers down in the process. Finally, he let go of the creature and had it thrown through the window of the store.
Tygra shot at the ground attempting to kill the incoming Graboid. He swiftly moved from place to place avoid the creature.
"This is ridiculous! We should beating these things but they keep on coming!" Tygra shouted. "They keep avoiding every shot we make!"
Cheetara's staff unleashed a rain of spiked daggers at the larger Graboid.
"They're learning!" She shouted her answer. "That's why!"
Lion-O slashed apart another of the Shriekers, decapitating its head. Suddenly, he felt his leg being touched and suddenly fell and was dragged away by one of the tentacles of the Graboid. Thinking quickly, he used gauntlet to stab the tentacle, putting himself and it in place. He lifted the Sword of Omens and sliced off the tentacle releasing his leg.
He quickly leapt up, back on his feet only to face two more tentacles. He slashed apart the one on the left furiously.
"It's like the Ramlak all over again!" He growled, reminded of a previous incident.
"Understatement of the year!" Tygra yelled in agreement.
"We need to be above ground!" Cheetara shouted. "It's the only way to elude these things, for now."
The Thunderkittens had heard what she had said; they did not need her to tell her twice as they climbed up with the latter.
Before the rest of the ThunderCats could follow suit, they noticed something amiss regarding an incoming Shrieker. The creature groaned as its skin changed color from brown to charcoal black. The beak grew longer and talons on its toes grew a bit bigger. But the moist startling change of all, wings sprouted from its body.
All six ThunderCats including Snarf looked on in shock, at a loss for words. It could only be summed as, "Oh Crap."
With a mighty roar, it literally propelled itself to fly with flames erupting out of its butt. It flew in mid-air roaring.
"They can fly too?" Tygra said, shocked at the apparent next stage of its evolution.
The ThunderCats entered the shelter, now familiar territory for Cheetara. The rest surveyed at the inside, admiring some of the items while finding other elements questionable…such as the big hold in the wall.
"What are we looking for?" Tygra asked.
"The very last thing Burt left behind." Cheetara replied as she typed in the words "Heather" on the pad next to the knob.
The door opened, unlocked from the pass code she had learned from Burt's own journal.
"Here we are." Cheetara said as the others stared at the room. They entered the room to discover a series of weapons mounted on the wall and on the other side, a head of a Graboid mounted as a trophy.
"This Burt had way too much time on his hands." Tygra sardonically said as he stared at the Graboid head.
"Here's the weapons manual." Cheetara tossed Lion-O a book.
"'An Idiots Guide to Ammo?''" He read the book's title in confusion.
"It'll teach us what we need to know about these weapons to kill those things." Cheetara explained.
"Whatever the case," Lion-O said as he picked up a large weapon with a ring on the barrel. "We're going to need to hit them with everything we got."
"What's that?" Wilykat pointed to a glass display of a golden vase of sorts.
"Burt." Cheetara replied.
"He's inside that?" Wilykit asked out of curiosity.
"No. They're simply his ashes." Cheetara replied further. "Burt's wishes before his death were to free his remains around the ocean when the Graboids are finally wiped out."
Before she could explain further, a small rumble began to erupt. The room began to shake a bit.
"Here we go." Panthro groaned.
The ground imploded sending the ThunderCats flying with Lion-O crashing into the wall of weapons, knocking some a bit down after hitting the ground face first.
They all saw the Graboid shaking its head back and forth roaring. Lion-O unsheathed the Sword of Omens from the gauntlet once again but only this time, the tentacle from the Graboid had managed to grab it and swipe it away from his hands. It retracted the tentacle inserting the weapon into its mouth.
Lion-O could only look helplessly as his weapon was taken away from the creature.
Author Notes: That's everything. For those who haven't figured it out. It's a crossover with Tremors, a very fun Horror-Comedy franchise especially given the first film is a homage to the creature feature of the 1950's and I'm sorry to the Burt Gummer fans that he's dead in this story but considering the setting, it just wouldn't feel right to do a fish out of water story. Really, just simply having the ThunderCats against the Graboids is just simply enough.
Anyway, I am open to constructive criticism. Feel free to send any ideas, I'd like to see what would work so don't feel afraid to send me whatever ideas you got and I'll see what I can do.