The tunnel was dark and cold as five cats made their way to a very special place. They let their whiskers guide them as they navigated through the tunnel, their feet padding quietly on the cold stone floor. The half-moon shone bright through a ragged hole in the roof, and it was a special time. It was the time the Clan medicine cats gathered at the Moonstone to share tongues with their warrior ancestors, StarClan.
As a gray she-cat entered the cavern, it lit up brilliantly as the moonlight struck and reflected off of the beautiful rock. As she entered, four more cats came through behind her; two brown toms, a black-and white tom, and a small golden-brown tom.
As they gathered around the Moonstone one of the brown toms, RiverClan's medicine cats, turned to the she-cat. "Ready, Cinderpelt?" he asked her.
Cinderpelt nodded. "Yes, Mudfur," she answered. They took a step toward the shining crystallite rock, along with WindClan and ShadowClan's medicine cats; Barkface, the other brown tom from WindClan, Runningnose, the black and white tom, and Littlecloud, the golden brown tom, both from ShadowClan. She laid next to Mudfur and closed her eyes, pressing her nose to the stone. StarClan, here I come, she thought as she drifted off.
As the she-cat opened her eyes, she looked around, expecting to see woodlands. She leapt to her feet as she realized that instead she was on the moors. "Moorland?" she wondered aloud. "Why am I here?" she scanned the area some more, and in the distance she saw bright flashes of blue streaking across the open hills. "What are those?"
"Those streaks are more important than you think," a voice said from beside her.
"Bluestar!" Cinderpelt exclaimed in surprise, snapping her head around to see the sparkling StarClan cat. The former leader was standing there with an urgent look on her face. Cinderpelt suddenly remembered her manners and dipped her head in respect and greeting. "What brings you here?"
"I have a prophecy for you," the blue-gray she-cat explained. "So listen carefully."
"A prophecy?" Cinderpelt gasped. "So soon?" She closed her eyes and shivered as she remembered the battle with BloodClan, only one moon ago. Blood had completely covered the forest floor at Fourtrees, the battlefield where the dreaded Scourge had led his final attack, only to be overthrown by Firestar, ThunderClan's leader.
Bluestar closed her eyes and nodded. "I'm afraid so," she told her. "When fire is extinguished, only the blue blur from afar can reignite the flame."
Cinderpelt looked out at the moor. Could that be what those streaks mean? She looked harder, and as she did so she could almost make out a shape on one end of the streams of color darting back and forth over the hills. She turned back to Bluestar with a look of question in her eyes; then she suddenly realized that the StarClan cat was fading away.
"Best of luck to you and your Clan." Bluestar said, dipping her head as she prepared to return to the rest of StarClan.
"Wait, Bluestar!" Cinderpelt exclaimed urgently as the former leader faded into the stars. "I-I don't understand! What does it mean?!"
"That's for StarClan to know and you to find out." The she-cat answered, fading away.
Cinderpelt snapped awake, finding herself back in the cavern. She looked at the moonstone with annoyance. "Stupid StarClan."
Meanwhile, in a place quite the opposite of StarClan, something very different was happening. The trees loomed over each and everything in this place of endless darkness, the only light coming from the faint greenish glow of the mushrooms sprouting from rotting wood.
Within the darkness, two cats looked into a reflecting pool. Its glowing turquoise water swirled as it reveal an image; an image of a muscular flame-colored tom, his leaf-green eyes glowing with pride. "Are you sure he's the one?" a small black cat asked, his collar studded with dog teeth, and dogs' claws hooked over his own.
"Positive," a much larger tabby answered, his dark brown pelt greatly scarred from the many battles he'd fought. "He is the one we need to target." His anger grew as he remembered what the Clans had done to him. He slammed his paw into the water, destroying the image. He gingerly licked a large paw, sheathing and unsheathing his large claws.
The small black cat looked at him, and spoke again, his face serious and his eyes full of doubt. "You realize, Tigerstar, that if this fails we may not have another chance."
The dark brown tabby nodded. "Yes, Scourge I do." His amber eyes glowed in the faint light. He knew he would get his revenge on the living cats, AND StarClan, whatever it took. And afterwards, when he no longer needed the small black cat he was conspiring with, he planned to rip his little throat out, just as Scourge had done to him. "But there is a plan B. But that would take moons of planning, and many cats. So let's just stick to plan A for now."
Scourge looked at Tigerstar and licked his lips. Then he looked back down into the reflecting pool as another image was forming. Now appearing in the swirling water was the shape of a hedgehog, except quite different then the hedgehogs they knew of in the forest. Scourge and Tigerstar had heard of this being from a strange shadow, wandering aimlessly through the forest. The shadow had said that the thing's name was Sonic the Hedgehog, and had described him as the spiky blue thing that had made it so he ceased to exist; and that was what cursed him to spend the rest of infinity in this wretched place. "And are you sure this one won't be a problem?" Scourge asked.
"Oh please!" Tigerstar scoffed. "It's a rat! And besides," he continued, standing up. "What happens in our world wouldn't be of his concern."
Scourge nodded. "So is it decided?"
"It is." Tigerstar said, walking off into the forest beside his small partner in crime. "I just hope this Twoleg agrees to the 'conditions' of this plan."
A large man blinked his eyes as he looked around. Dang it! he thought bitterly. The man had been having a dream about how he would take over Mobius, with Sonic helpless to stop him. Where the heck am I? he asked himself. He started walking, but a voice behind him made him stop in his tracks.
"Ivo Robotnik," the voice said. It was deep a filled with malice.
"Yes?" the man asked, hearing his name. "What do you want?" he turn around and saw that the source of the voice was in fact not another human being, but a tomcat. I must still be dreaming. This cat was quite large, a dark brown tabby covered in scars, the most noticeable being a deep-looking scratch across its nose.
The tom looked at him. "I am Tigerstar, former leader of ShadowClan, and I-"
A small black cat cut him off. "You mouse-brain! He's a Twoleg!"
The tabby glared at the ebony tom. "I told you that, didn't I?"
"He's not going to understand us!"
"He is from another world!"
Robotnik cut in. "I can understand you perfectly fine; though I'm dreaming, aren't I?"
The large brown tabby looked at him. "Oh yes, but I can assure that this is no ordinary dream." With that, the tom leapt up and scratched the man across the cheek, just hard enough to leave a mark. "Anyways, as I said before, my name is Tigerstar, former leader of ShadowClan, and I'm here to make a deal with you." He stretched. "You specialize in chaos energy, correct, Ivo?"
"Yes. But how would you know about that? You're from earth, and your cats for that matter!" Ivo was surprised at how much this cat knew, and even more surprised at the fact that he could actually feel the scratch it had given him.
"Oh, a little birdie told me," Tigerstar said sarcastically.
"Uh, it was actually a shadow-" Scourge started.
"Shut it, Scourge!" Tigerstar snapped.
A shadow. . . Ivo thought for a minute. He vaguely remembered something like that, but couldn't quite put his finger on it. "Oh, and you can call Dr. Robotnik, by the way." he told the cat.
"Fine," Tigerstar said. He smirked as he imagined his plan unfolding. "So, Dr. Robotnik, we have intel that there is a great amount of chaos energy within a fellow cat, who goes by the name Firestar." He growled as he said he enemy's name; oh, how he despised it. "And anyways, with could help you capture him for your own needs, and in return, we only want two things; the destruction of the moonstone, and the enslavement of every cat in the forest."
Robotnik nodded. "Should be simple enough," he said. "But how do I know you're telling the truth about the chaos energy?"
"Not only was he the perfect apprentice AND warrior," Tigerstar said. "But the. . . thing we talked to told us, and he seemed to know what he was talking about."
"I see," Robotnik nodded. "And just out of curiosity, did this 'thing' have a name?" Something about it sounded familiar, and the scientist wanted to see if he could identify what it was.
"It did," Tigerstar told him. "It called itself Mephiles. Mephiles the Dark."