Chapter 2:
The morning patrol is made up of a light brown pelted she-cat who's name is Sand Storm, along with a warrior of her generation, a dark brown flecked pelted tom named Dust Pelt. Gray should have accompanied them this morning, but he didn't show up so the two cats left on with no idea about what is awaiting them. The small group is finishing up their patrol, heading back to the Guild without any signs of trouble.
They walk down the familiar patrol path around a secluded area in the town, relatively relaxed and tired from their shift. Suddenly, a strong fist is flying through the air aimed. With no time to react, Dust barely manages to duck out of the way from the incoming blow to the head, while Sand throws a punch to the assail. Not a moment later, the two cats find themselves back to back and completely surrounded by half a dozen thugs. They are ambushed, and the stand-still turns instantly into a three on one battle.
The group of thugs might have an advantage in number, but they underestimated the two Thunder Clan warriors. Dust punches his first attacker hard enough to knock him unconscious, he quickly elbows another in the guts then rolls back into a neutral fighting stance ready attack.
Similarly, Sand easily kicks two where the sun will never shine again causing them to drop to there knees uselessly, she then shifts her body and leans back to nearly avoiding a sucker punch from behind. Her sudden shift surprised the attacker, creating an opening for the blond she-cat to turn around completely, take a hold of his head, and slam his face into her rising knee, knocking him out.
The fight is prolonged for a few minutes until the table turns abruptly. A new figure steps into the battle. The new addition, a large tabby tom, equipped with broad shoulders, a powerful ambition, and a distinctive scar on his nose, calmly walk towards the two warriors, going unnoticed by either member as he makes his way towards the brown flecked tom.
While Dust is engrossed in his fight, he doesn't see the new figure slowly creeps up behind him. For a moment, the thugs all back off of Dust, leaving him confused and panting. Just as quickly, he feels a quick and hard jab to one of his pressure point. Dust lets out a feeble chocking sound, his eyes widening in realization.
Dust's small cry attracts Sand's attention, and she turns just in time to see him fall down. They locked eyes for a moment, glazed and unfocused browns meet with wide and frightened greens, before Dust slumps to the ground, immediately unconscious.
"DUST!" Sand shrieks out in terror.
She abandons her fight instantly and makes a bee-line bolt towards her unresponsive friend. As she runs, a few thugs get in her way, but she side-kicks each of them out of her way, hard, causing them to double over in pain. Sand advances with her eyes holding unadulterated fury towards the shadowed figure standing menacingly over Dust. The shadowed cat then leaned forward and picked up Dust's unconscious head by his hair and placed a knife to his throat.
"Come any closer and he dies," says the mysterious, cold voice.
Sand freezes in her tracks for a moment, but in that instant of distraction, she is jumped from behind and slammed into the cement ground. She doesn't hesitate to shack off her attacker and quickly manages to kick him off. However, Sand doesn't even have the time to look up before someone headlocks her. Strong arms pull her down as he falls to his knees. She frantically thrashes around, howling and growling, but the kneeling position is greatly restricting her.
"Come now Sand," whispered an eerily familiar and calm voice into her right ear. "Do you really want your friend to die here."
Sand tenses immediately and her desperate thrashing slowly subdues until it stops completely. Soon enough, she has her face bowed to the grown, refusing to acknowledge the person behind her. All she could do is hiss viciously.
"Good girl."
The large tabby tom smirks darkly down at his victim, and soon enough, Sand is out cold on the ground.
"Take the girl," orders the leader as he stands up again. "Tie up the other one, and dump him out of sight."
"Right away Tiger Star," the henchmen near him get to work right away.
"Gather the men. The time for revenge is nearing."
"Yessir!" they all yell in unison.
Tiger looks at the unconscious woman thrown on to one of his henchmen's shoulder. A twisted and wicked smile forms on his features, making his face darken horribly. In a low threatening growl, he says to no-one in particular.
"I can't wait for our little game to finally end, deputy."
He lets out an evil chuckle, then leaves the scene followed closely by his followers. Their mission is a complete success. Now he just needs to wait for everything to play out and slowly fall into place. But before he leaves, he waits for the last of his cats to finish dealing with the unconscious body of Dust. Once he is thrown out of view and kicked in the head one last time, Tiger walks to the brown tom and places a letter on his chest, then the villainous band takes their leave carrying their acquired burden.
Elsewhere, Fire is calmly walking to the city with Cloud and Gray, in hopes of teaching Cloud about a few of the historical sites in their city. Then out of nowhere, a strange sensation crawled up his spine, making him shiver with, and his hair to stand on end. Fire suddenly stops and narrows his eyes in confusion, looking around trying to find where this bad feeling is coming from. Near him, Gray also stops realizing that his friend is no longer walking with them.
"Fire?" he asks tentatively. "Are you ok?"
"No. Yes… Maybe? I don't know," answers Fire nervously. "Something just hit me now. Something feels… wrong, it feels horribly wrong."
Gray and Cloud exchange a concerned glance at each other than look back to the orange tom. Fire is known to get instinct feeling about situations, and they are always right. Without any warning, Fire bolts away from them, shocking both cats momentarily before they quickly follow after him.
After a few minutes of solemn running, Cloud breaks the silence, panting slightly.
"Where are we going Fire?"
"I don't know. I just have a gut feeling."
"What do you think we will find?" asks Gray.
"I don't know Gray, but I would rather not know."
Sensing that the conversation going nowhere, they continue the rest of their run in a tense silence. Around them, the city scenes are slowly changing to a familiar route. The first one to recognize the area is Gray.
"Wait a minute!" Gray exclaims. "Isn't this the route we use on our morning patrols?"
"Yeah…," Fire replies quietly. "…Yeah. It is."
Fire doesn't say it, but they all hear the unspoken words coming from the orange tom. They need to keep their eyes open for the morning patrol. Gray is supposed to have gone on that morning patrol. Needless to say, Gray is slowly being engulfed by fear and guilt the closer the group heads towards the familiar route.
The three Thunder Clan cats arrive in front of a back alley breathless from all of their running, but adrenaline rushes through them as they stare in shock at the scene in front of them. The alley has small patches of blood can be seen everywhere, and shredded pieces of clothing litter the floor.
"What happened where?" asks Cloud cautiously.
Fire seems to be lost in thought, so Gray answers instead.
"It looks like a battlefield."