Author's Note: Hello! This note won't be as long as the other one, I promise. What'd you guys think of the last chapter? I've shred the plot with some friends prior to publishing this, and they seemed to like it, but I'll let you guys judge it. Um, one more thing: do you guys think the Clan cats are speaking too formally? I just kinda noticed Erin Hunter writes more formally than Rick Riordan. Let me know, and I'll try and fix that. Oh, yeah. I don't own the Warriors series. I only own, like the ones I made up. So that'd be...Lightningflash, Rainwing, Foxstrike, Clawpaw...and a bunch of other ones. So yeah. Read and review!

"What are you: kittypet or loner?"

"What's a kittypet?" the tom questioned. He seemed comfortable with asking questions.

"A cat that lives with Twolegs and eats their food."

"And a Twoleg is…" the golden she-cat prompted.

"It's our word for those things without claws or tails that walk on two legs," Bramblestar responded wearily.

"Well then, we're not kittypets," the tom responded. "We're definitely loners."

"Very well," Bramblestar replied gravely. Then, turning to the Clan added, "I propose that, if they wish, the rogues will fight our finest warriors. If they fight well, we will allow them to stay, provided they agree to learn our ways. Do you wish this?" he continued.

The strangers exchanged glances before replying, "Yes, we do."

"Very well," Bramblestar responded. "Lionblaze, Ivypool. Step forward."

My brother and Ivypool stepped out from among the crowd as Bramblestar resumed speaking. "Keep in mind," he warned the strangers. "We do not fight with our teeth and claws while we're training. Keep your claws sheathed as you fight."

Percy's POV

"What if we win?" I asked the leader of the band of cats.

"You won't," he replied smiling slightly. "Get ready." The golden cat, who I assumed was Lionblaze, faced me eagerly, probably ready to take me down, but I just stared back. I'd faced way worse than him before. The silver cat turned to Annabeth as the leader called, "Begin!"

Lionblaze lunged at me, although his claws were withdrawn. He followed up with two quick paw swipes, trying to find a hole in my defense, but I dodged all his blows until, exhausted, he stepped back.

I feinted toward his head by rearing up on my hind feet-sorry, paws. As he reared up with me, I dove at his feet-argh! PAWS! What I'm trying to say is, he lost his balance and toppled forward. As he fell, I waited underneath him with my legs braced. Once he hit my back, I compressed my legs before pushing straight up, sending my opponent flying into the air.

I felt bad, because during our little fight I had scraped him with my new claws a little bit. Not deep, just enough to draw blood. Oops.

Lionblaze landed flat on his back, all the air knocked out of his lungs. He lay there for a few seconds, stunned. Sheesh, what was his problem? It's not like he'd never been beaten before.

I still heard sounds of fighting, and pivoted (rather awkwardly) to find the silver cat, Ivypool, still trying to beat Annabeth.

Up until I started watching, Annabeth had been deflecting Ivypool's blows almost lazily, but suddenly Annabeth darted to one side, as if she was trying to slash Ivypool's left flank. Ivypool blocked the feint, but didn't anticipate the real strike.

Annabeth lightly hopped to Ivypool's right, slipped under her belly and came out on the left side. Then, while Ivypool was trying to locate her, Annabeth twisted, hauled herself onto Ivypool's back, and hooked her paws out from under her all in one movement. Then, as Ivypool was falling, Annabeth jumped off, pushing Ivypool into the ground faster and propelling herself into the air.

She landed neatly beside me, and looking up at the leader innocently queried, "What happens if we win again?"

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" the leader inquired. "Did you train somewhere?"

"Yes, we did," Annabeth replied before I could open my mouth. Smart girl. "We went to a camp similar to this, but we had to leave. We were driven out, along with our companions by, ah...more powerful beings. However, we were not taught those moves exactly."

"Then how did you know them?"

"Well, I was taught to be unpredictable," I grinned. "Like the sea."

"What is the sea?" a slender shouldered gray tom standing at the side of the leader asked.

"Oh…it's this huge body of water with waves. Only the waves are a lot bigger than the ones in your lake."

"He must men the sun-drown place," the leader explained to his cats. This they seemed to understand. "But, yes, the sun-drown place is unpredictable."

I noticed that as I said this, the leader and the small shouldered gray tom tensed.

"Wow, Percy," Annabeth muttered. "Way to keep the ID secret." Out loud she continued, eyes sparkling with amusement, "I'm really good at thinking on my feet."

"Yeah," I rolled my eyes. "Cause that's not obvious at all."

"I see," the leader meowed. "I am Bramblestar. This is the Clan medicine cat, Jayfeather," he gestured to the slim gray cat with strange blue eyes, "and my deputy Squirrelflight." An orange furred cat nodded to us politely. "What are your names?" Bramblestar resumed.

Annabeth nudged me. "The "medicine cat" is blind. That's why his eyes look weird."

Oh. Turning my attention back to Bramblestar, I replied, "I'm Percy, and this is Annabeth."

"Those names will not do," Bramblestar informed us. "All our names are similar: we are given one part of our name as a kit and the second part when we become full warriors."

I was about to ask what a warrior was, but I realized that was a stupid question. Obviously, a warrior was...well, a warrior.

Bramblestar's gaze settled on me. "You will be Seastorm." I almost chuckled out loud, but only just stopped myself. If only they knew how ironic that was! "You will be Quickthought," Bramblestar told Annabeth. Another eerily fitting name.

Bramblestar focused on his Clan again before continuing, "These cats have the fighting skills of full warriors, but they do not know our ways. Ivypool, you will mentor Quickthought the ways of a Clan. Lionblaze, you will be mentor to Seastorm." With that statement, Bramblestar pivoted and walked back into his cave, calling over his shoulder, "Jayfeather! Join me."

Our "mentors" approached us, and introduced themselves properly. They sounded polite enough, but their eyes glinted harshly. I guess they were still a little frustrated at our beating them oh so easily.

"Come with us," Ivypool instructed Annabeth, sorry "Quickthought" and I. "You need to be familiar with the Clan's border for patrol."

"Is that what you were doing when you found us today?" Annabeth asked Lionblaze.

"Yes," he replied. "We do border patrol every day to make sure no cats have trespassed on our lands. Rogues and kittypets," here he cast a glance at us, "we generally chase off. But Clan cats we bring straight back to camp."

"So why were we brought back to camp?" I questioned, confused. The Clan's policies and what actually happened seemed conflicting to me. Hopefully, I'm not the only one.

"We would have chased you off," Lionblaze responded, "but the new warriors wanted the glory of catching you. They wanted our leader to be impressed. We definitely didn't expect Bramblestar to make you members of the Clan," he spat.

"Really feeling the love, dude," I snarled sarcastically. "But how many Clans are there?"

Ivypool answered, "Four. WindClan, ShadowClan, RiverClan, and our Clan: ThunderClan. Each Clan has its own territory so that no cat steals prey from another. WindClan lives on the moor, ShadowClan in the pine forest, RiverClan by the river, and obviously ThunderClan here."

"Why don't you all just live together?" Annabeth-grr! Stupid new names! Quickthought asked.

"We can't!" Ivypool responded outraged. "The Warrior Code prevents it!"

"The Warrior Code is a list of rules left to us by our ancestors. They are the reason that Clan cats don't dissolve into bands of rogues. It says that we must not consort with members of another Clan, we can't fight within our Clan, boundaries must be respected, the Clan must be fed first, medicine cats can't have kits, and things similar to that," Lionblaze explained.

"What if you fall in love with someone from another Clan?" I asked, suspicious. "You don't keep them apart, do you?"

"Of course we do!" Ivypool exclaimed. "A cat should be able to find love within its own Clan."

I noticed Anna- Quickthought watching Lionblaze sharply and turned to my "mentor." I saw that his eyes held a trace of sadness, as if he had just gotten over longing for something he couldn't have.

I couldn't understand why the Clans would do that! It obviously caused pain to many of their members, but they still refused to let cats in love be together. And Annabeth says I'm an idiot.

Our teachers walked us around the whole territory. They obviously still didn't trust us all the way, but neither did we, so that was okay. The last border Ivypool and Lionblaze showed us was the WindClan border, which was separated by a stream.

I was a little tired from the tour, and was about to take a drink when I remembered my powers. Would they still work while I was a cat? Normally, water healed and strengthened me, but now…

I dipped my head lower to the water and cautiously took a drink. Immediately, I felt strength flow back into my limbs. I stuck my head underwater and inhaled deeply, but it felt just like normal breathing. Yes!

When I came back up, Lionblaze and Ivypool were watching me strangely, but Quickthought (See, I got it this time!) seemed to get it.

"Do they work?" she whispered when I rejoined her.

"Yep," I replied.

"Excellent. This could mean that the change isn't permanent. Hopefully, we can find a way to change ourselves back, or if we get back to camp, have the Hecate cabin kids do it."