A/N: Hahaha! I'm writing again! Hallelujah!...for me, at least. Heh, anyways. I decided to change it to Teen until we get to the more...racey chapters..which won't be for a couple of chapters, so we're safe. Anyways, enjoy the sweat and blood I put into this! This chapter is alot longer than I usually like my chapters to be. But alot of it is dialogue, so it shouldn't be too hard to read through. Don't hurt your eyes. And enjoy!

Day 1

Tumblebrutus sighed to himself as the day was just beginning, the sun slowly rising into the sky. And all he could do was watch the sun rise. And wait. Waiting seemed the thing to do. Seeing as he had nowhere else to go, what with being caught in a net and all.

Every once in a while, his tail would swish back in forth when the thought of the cats who put him in said net came to his mind. Other times, he would sway his body slightly, letting the net and its occupant sway like a pendulum. But between these activities, he would…wait.

And all this waiting was interrupted by a giggle below him.

Tumblebrutus' eyes widened as he looked down and saw Etcetera smiling cheekily up at him. He felt himself go red under his fur as he stared at the little calico. "Um," was his opener.

"Good morning, Tumble," she said, unable to hide her excitement in her voice. "Well…nice morning, isn't it?"

"Yeah, yeah," he nodded, looking off to the still rising sun. "Nice morning, it is."

"Yup," Etcetera made a big show of stretching, before letting out a long, satisfied sigh. "I would have to agree with ya on that, ol' Tumbley." There was silence. Tumblebrutus absentmindedly nodded from inside his net. Etcetera stared up at him, a huge grin plastered on her face, her paws behind her back.

Waiting…again.

"So," Etcetera began, "You're not gunna tell me what--"

"Don't ask."

"Not even a little clue?"

"Just get me down, Etcetera!" By now, he was tired of waiting, and action was very much desired.

"Oh, no," Etcetera said, letting out a high-pitched, rapid giggle, before calming herself down. "You're not getting off that easily." Tumblebrutus didn't have time to wonder what Etcetera could possibly do to him when he was just out of her reach, when his would-be question was answered. "Hey, Jemima!"

"Etcetera!" The tom shifted in his tiny, confined space, trying hard to get a good look at the queen, who was now grinning maliciously – or so he interpreted her grin. "Come on, what have I ever done to you?!"

"Well, nothing," she said, taking a moment to give a thoughtful look. "But when's the next time I'll be able to find you in a net?"

"Who's in a net?" Tumblebrutus felt his face fire up in embarrassment when he saw the little black and burgundy queen come into view. Immediately, Jemima and Tumblebrutus locked eyes, and there was a split second in which Jemima's face split open with an amused smile before putting a paw over her mouth and trying to choke down a laugh. The tom's ears fell backwards. He really didn't think he had much chance for salvaging his dignity if even the most understanding of queens was trying hard not to make fun of his predicament.

Jemima walked wordlessly around the net as Tumblebrutus just stared off, trying not to pay attention to being treated like a specimen. Finally, Jemima looked to Etcetera, then back up at Tumblebrutus. "How did you get up there?" she asked, almost too sweetly. Etcetera let herself laugh some more, as Jemima once again bit back her laughter.

"It's a long story," Tumblebrutus said tersely. "Can you help me?"

Jemima turned to Etcetera. "Maybe we should cut him down."

"Well," Etcetera said, putting her paws up innocently. "I don't have anything to cut him down with. Do you?" Jemima shook her head. "Well, then, we need reinforcements."

"No, Etcetera, please!" Tumblebrutus called, managing to reach a paw out of the net to try and halt the calico queen.

"ELECTRA?!" Etcetera seemed to be dancing in place as she waited for her best friend to come bounding up. Jemima gave Etcetera an admonishing look, but the calico paid no mind.

"What the hell are you up to?" Electra asked, looking flustered as she turned a corner. "I thought you were going to get Viccie so we can go get – Whoa! Tumble, what happened to you?!" Tumblebrutus sighed, going limp in the net.

"Can you help me?" he asked meekly.

"Oh-ho-ho," Electra smiled to herself. "Yeah, give me a minute…" Instead of doing anything to cut the rope - the perfectly accessible rope, which was clearly the source holding him up - Electra bent down low, then, after getting enough energy, jumped up as high as she could, grabbed onto the net, causing Tumblebrutus to flinch as he did his best to move out of the way, and with a whoop of joy, Electra began swinging on the net.

"Electra!" Jemima chided. "That's mean!"

"I wish I'd of thought of that!" Etcetera said, jumping up and clapping her paws. Electra swung with the ease of a trapeze artist, giggling to herself and cheering with joy each time they swung, while Tumblebrutus did his best to keep him stomach from losing his dinner from the night before.

"Come on!" Tumblebrutus said, finally fed up with the queens. "Would you just help me!?"

"Come on, you two," Jemima pleaded from the sidelines, concerned with the normally placid tom's uproar.

"What's going on?" asked a pleasant voice. Tumblebrutus' heart jumped into his throat. The other queens went quiet, and as though it would help, placed themselves in front of the conspicuous net swinging from above their heads. And out came Victoria from around a corner, whose eyes instantly went up to the poor tom caught in a net. Her mouth stood open, as she stared in confusion, before looking to her friends for an explanation.

"It's not what you think!" Etcetera said quickly.

"He was already there when we got here," Electra said.

"Well, not swinging, so much," Jemima said, sending an accusatory look to the calico and the tortoiseshell.

Victoria could only smile nervously. It had been a long time since she had spoken to any of the former tom kittens. "Are you okay, Tumblebrutus?" she asked, her ears slightly back.

"Y-yeah," he said nervously.

"Did these queens do this to you?" she asked, looking over to the three queens below him. "Because…I apologize for them if they did."

"We didn't do anything!" Etcetera whined. "Tell her, Tumbley!"

"Why would they want to do something to me?" Tumblebrutus asked.

"No reason," Victoria said quickly. "Let me go get Alonzo to cut you down."

"No, wait, Victoria!" Tumblebrutus called, reaching out to her, but it was too late. Tumblebrutus sighed, eying the rope that held the net up. It really wasn't that difficult a net to undo, even for a small queen with delicate nails. They meant to torture him. They may not have put him there, but certainly, the scheming little queens would have liked to make the toms pay for bringing such misery on Victoria. Unintentionally.

Jemima looked up, shrugging, with a sympathetic smile on her face. "At least you'll get cut down."

"Now," Etcetera said, getting ready to jump up to the net the way Electra had done earlier. "Are you gunna tell us how you got up there or not?"

"And give you three ideas on how to torture Plato?" Tumblebrutus asked, eyes narrowing at the calico queen. The three queens looked at each other as though they had been caught with their paws in the cat treat jar. "I thought so." Etcetera just stuck her tongue out at the tom, but could do nothing now with the black and white protector of the junkyard walking up to the small clowder of former kittens.

Victoria stood aside with her three friends as Alonzo looked up at Tumblebrutus in annoyance. "Get out of here, you four…" Etcetera let out a small "ooh…" as the queens left the tom in the net, each waving "bye" with a different intensity, from the gentle wave Victoria gave to the vehement waving of the arms from Etcetera. Then it was just Alonzo and Tumblebrutus.

"What…are…you…doing?" Alonzo glared up at the tom. He looked very tired. Too tired to possibly give the tom the benefit of the doubt.

"Oh…nothing much," Tumblebrutus said. Alonzo growled lowly as he climbed up to where the rope was tied. He began to slowly cut through the rope with a sharpened piece of metal.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Alonzo asked, as Tumblebrutus was now looking down precariously from the height he was soon going to drop from. The brown and white tom began to squirm in the net, hoping to adjust himself so he wouldn't fall on his back. "I mean, here I ask you three to make a decision, a life changing decision, one that can affect the entire tribe, and what do you do? Start setting nets up and getting caught in them. Stop moving!"

The tom had somehow ended up on his side, facing away from Alonzo. He strained to look back at the black and white. "This wasn't our fault. Mungo and Rumple did this to me."

"Part of being second in command--after me, that is— is to be able to anticipate the antics of cats like Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer! What if this had been Macavity who set up a trap like this? You would have been rat chow by now! What part of 'Stop moving' did you not understand?!"

Tumblebrutus had managed to roll onto his stomach, though now his head was tilted. So he was most likely to take a header. He hardly wanted that. "The part where I don't get hurt in the fall! And I didn't get caught by Macavity, did I?"

"No, just by two of his best bumbling burglars," Alonzo said, sighing as he had to stop his work at cutting Tumblebrutus down; he was moving too much. "Maybe you shouldn't be second, after all."

"Hey!" Tumblebrutus said, adjusting himself until he was in a somewhat-seated position. "That's not your decision to make! And we have a lot to learn anyway. We're on top of choosing who'll be second, don't worry."

"Oh, really?" Alonzo asked, getting back to work cutting through the rope. "And how exactly are you deciding this?"

"We're having a competition," Tumblebrutus explained. "Whoever wins, proves himself to be second."

"A competition, huh?" Alonzo said, shaking his head. "And when does this end?"

"…we…uh…whenever one of us wins. WHOA!" Tumblebrutus crashed to the ground, landing squarely on his rear, and with a small groan of pain, tried to free himself of the net around him. By the time he got the net from around his head, Alonzo was staring him down. Tumblebrutus suddenly felt like a kitten again, shrinking down at the harsh glare.

"…You are not going to wait to see who wins." Alonzo's glare seemed to cut right through Tumblebrutus. "You have three days." The tom spun around to leave.

"Whoa!" Tumblebrutus leapt from the net and raced over to the black and white tom, though stayed a safe distance away as the black and white was giving off a very dark aura. "We need more than just three days! This competition takes time!"

"Three days," Alonzo said again, trudging along as he walked away from the other tom.

"Three days is hardly enough time to do what we have to do!" Tumblebrutus told him. "We need at the very least, a week."

"Hell, no," Alonzo said, his ears laying flat on his head, his mouth pulled into a frown. "Three days, and we're leaving it at that! Now shut up, will you? I don't want to wake Cassie." Tumblebrutus watched as the tom was making his way to said queen's den. No wonder he was so pissed off when he arrived…

"If you don't give us more time," Tumblebrutus said, in a voice just loud enough to threaten to wake the sleeping queen, "then I'll not only wake Cassandra up, I'll tell her you were with the other queens!"

Alonzo stopped dead in his tracks. Tumblebrutus felt his heart jump into his throat. He had been hanging around Plato too long to be able to think up a malicious blackmail like that…

Alonzo turned, an indeterminable expression on his face. "You wouldn't…"

"Um…" No, he couldn't be cowardly about it. He had to be strong in his decision…to anger a cat who had the potential to ruin his life. So, taking a big gulp, Tumblebrutus did his best to look strong. "I would."

"But you would be lying," Alonzo said, stepping closer to the tom, his voice in a whisper. "I was there because of you!"

"Yeah," Tumblebrutus said, as he tried to stop his paws from shaking too conspicuously. "But what is Cassandra gunna believe? You had to free a tom cat from a net? Or you were hanging around with four young queens when you should have been sleeping with her in her den? And if she asked Victoria or Etcetera…or even Jemima…don't you think that would look bad when they casually nod that yes, you had been with them that morning…?"

Alonzo seemed torn between killing Tumblebrutus, and knowing that he was telling the truth. While the black and white might have kept his flirting to a minimum around Cassandra, he had far too much history with the others to think the Abyssinian would ever believe he was simply doing them a favor. And that tiny little nugget of truth would be his downfall.

"One week," Alonzo said through clenched teeth.

"Make it two," Tumblebrutus said, feeling elation over take him at the thought of his plan having worked.

"Hell, no!"

"Oh, Cassie!" Tumblebrutus began walking towards the queen's den.

"Alright!" Alonzo said, jerking the tom back towards him. Tumblebrutus thought he surely would have ripped his arm out if he wanted to. "Two weeks. But no more than that!"

With some relief, both toms parted ways. Although not in any way, a friendly manner. But now Tumblebrutus had another problem to worry about…

-----

"Two weeks?!" Plato screeched. It was very unbecoming of him to screech…

"What was I supposed to do?" Tumblebrutus asked. "He could have killed me right there if he wanted to!"

Pouncival smiled. "He wouldn't have killed you."

The tom turned on Pouncival. "You didn't see that look in his eyes!" Pouncival lowered his head and backed away.

"Alright," Plato said, sighing. "This is better…yeah, now we have something to aim for. I mean, how bad of luck do we have to have with queens to not be able to get one to go out with us in two weeks?"

The toms all shrugged in unison. He had a point. How hard could this be, anyway?

-----

Plato ran his paw through his head-fur, carefully considering his position. Demeter seemed to be in a contemplative mood. Though, he didn't know when she wasn't. All he had to do was go up to her and initiate conversation. Certainly, his charm would win her over soon enough.

Plato began to walk up to Demeter. But, somehow, his walk turned into a strut, and by the time he was standing next to Demeter, his chest was puffed out proudly, and his ego seemed to have grown to amazing proportions. "Hey, Dem," he opened. "I--"

Demeter took one look up at him, hissed lightly under her breath, and with a disgusted look on her face, picked up and left, without giving a glance to the tom behind her. Plato stood, dumbfounded, unsure of what could have happened in so short of time.

"Wait, Demeter!" He called, racing after her, feeling a twinge of annoyance at having been so easily ignored. "Wait, I just wanted to talk to you!" Demeter turned a corner, and by the time Plato arrived there, Demeter had disappeared.

Plato took in a shaky breath. Okay, okay…this was nothing to worry about. If anything, he might have an ally in her when he became second. But for now…he just had to try and figure out how to get this disagreeable queen's attention.

---

Pouncival peeked his head from out of a shoe box, peering across the yard at Tantomile. She was speaking with her brother. Of course. She was always speaking with her brother! The question was, did he really want to approach that kitten-calling low life brother of hers. He would mess up everything! It was all part of his secret plan…to keep the princess Tantomile from his prince charming – otherwise known as Pouncival. A knight in shining armor…

Or something along those lines. He hadn't decided what his mission would be, so he resorted to fairy tales. It was the only way he could look positively at having to do anything with the queen who creeped him out.

Formerly creeped him out. He couldn't have that mind set if he was going to go out and conquer this queen. Conquer…in a non-sexual way. Anyway…

Then, Pouncival perked his ears up. It seemed the evil Coricopat was walking off, leaving Tantomile alone. Perfect. Just perfect. The queen had begun to groom her paw, and this would be the perfect opportunity to try conversing with the queen.

Pouncival bounded up to Tantomile, catching her slightly off guard as he skidded to a halt in front of her. "Hi!" he said, grinning goofily.

"What are you up to?" she asked, her intense stare almost making Pouncival lose his grin. His ears did fall back, though, but he had to be steadfast on his very important mission. Still, she seemed so suspicious of him. Which put him off, considering that he was suspicious of her.

But he didn't SHOW it.

"Oh…um…" Pouncival licked his lips, trying to get his bearings. "I just thought I don't really talk to you much. You know? We don't talk. At all. Ever." He nodded to confirm what he had just said.

Tantomile furrowed her brows, a small smile creeping on her face. "Pouncival, do you know what caffeine is?" Truthfully, he didn't. It must have been a secret word that meant that an untimely death would befall him and everyone he loved! "It's something in some human food that makes them very hyper," she explained upon the confused, and possibly terrified, look on his face. "You're little…introduction…just reminded me of a child on caffeine, is all."

"Caffeine?" Pouncival asked, genuinely intrigued. "Is it…delicious?"

"Um, no," Tantomile said. "It's actually deadly to most cats."

"AHA!" Pouncival sprang to his feet and pointed an accusing paw at Tantomile. Tantomile's eyes widened in surprise. "I KNEW it! You're plotting our deaths, aren't you?!"

Perhaps, this wasn't the best way to charm a queen…

But to Pouncival's surprise, Tantomile simply smiled. "If I were plotting your death, I certainly wouldn't be as creative as to use caffeine!" Pouncival arched an eyebrow, inspecting Tantomile up and down.

"Really?" he asked silkily. "What would you do, then?"

Tantomile quickly glanced from one side to another, before leaning close to the tom. "For you," she began, a playful expression in her eye, "Probably something that makes it look like an accident. Like…during the Jellicle Ball, when you jumped from the chair, I would have found a way to trip you, so you would land wrong."

"You were watching that?" he asked, baffled.

"You're a little hard to miss, Pouncival." The tom smirked at what the queen, who by all rights should have never noticed a tom kitten running around and acting like an idiot, had said. "And I'm a little surprised," she admitted.

"Why's that?"

"You don't mind a slightly twisted sense of humor," she said, before going back to grooming her paw. Pouncival opened his mouth to retort, before realizing that he did, indeed, enjoy her sense of humor.

"Huh," Pouncival marveled. Then he saw an opportunity. "Hey, do you want to go chase some mice? We can discuss how you would go about murdering Tugger or Jerrie or something?"

Tantomile was about to answer when she turned her head at something. Pouncival looked in the same direction, and after a few moments, Coricopat came around the corner, complete with a glare for Pouncival.

"What's going on?" he asked in an accusatory manner.

"Nothing," Pouncival said defensively, sneering at the tom. "I was just talking to your sister. Tell him, Tantomile."

"We were conspiring ways to kill Mungojerrie," Tantomile verified. To which Pouncival nodded his head vehemently.

Coricopat let go of the assassination going on under his watch and turned his attention to Pouncival. "You've been following us around for the past week. What are you up to? Why are you suddenly so interested in us?!"

Pouncival felt caught, but tried to laugh it off. He turned to Tantomile for support, but she had a look that she wanted to know as well. So with a nervous smile plastered on his face, he shrugged and answered, "It's just a coincidence."

Coricopat scowled at the tom. Then, without a word, the tom turned and left. Tantomile got up, and just as silently, left along with her brother.

"Wha—Tantomile?" But the queen just shrugged at the tom before leaving. Pouncival sighed to himself, silently cursing his luck, before sitting and thinking of his situation.

…EVIL Coricopat…

----

The brown and white tom crept through the shadows, towards two tiger tabbies calmly grooming themselves. Mungojerrie was the first to notice this tom coming out of the shadows and making his way over to them, his eyes intensely fixated on the male orange tabby. Mungojerrie nudged Rumpleteazer out of her grooming daze and pointed to the brown and white.

"Well, well, well," Mungojerrie smiled cheekily. "Didja want some more?"

"You're such a Pollicle, Mungo," Tumblebrutus said, making to whack the tom upside the head, but the orange tabby quickly ducked. "What did you have to do that, for?"

"Aw, don't take it all personal-like, Tumble."

"Yeah," Rumpelteazer nodded her head, her bright green eyes with a playful look in it. "We didn' know it was you. We though' it was Pouncival."

"And after you saw it was me, you didn't have the decency to cut me down?"

Both cats opened their mouths to answer when they realized they had no idea how to answer that. Rumpelteazer leaned close to her partner in crime. "'e's got a point, luv."

"You two are horrible." Tumblebrutus shook his head. "I thought our friendship was stronger than that, Mungo."

Mungojerrie started laughing. Tumblebrutus made a face and began to walk away. But the tabby grabbed his arm. "No, wait, Tumble, don' be like that. Come on! Wha' can we do to make it up to ya?"

Tumblebrutus was about to answer, "Nothing, you jackass!" when he thought about his situation. His eyes darted to Rumpleteazer, who was watching with interest, then back to a delightfully-ignorant-to-his-plan Mungojerrie. Quickly, he had to run through this.

What would be the most fruitful thing to ask for? He couldn't very well ask for a date with Rumpleteazer without knowing their relationship with each other. And he couldn't let them know that his intention the entire time they were being followed was the tabby queen. And it was probably best if he could explain away why he was following them to begin with before they stopped worrying about his feelings and started wondering why.

Glancing once more at Rumpleteazer, he took a deep breath, then looked to Mungojerrie. "You know…I think I know something," he said, trying hard to stop himself from shaking as he pulled his arm away from the tiger tom. "I've been thinking, lately…wondering what it's like to…you know…be like you guys."

"What?" Rumpleteazer asked. "Stripe-ed?"

"No…burglars."

"Shh!" Mungojerrie clapped a paw over Tumblebrutus' mouth. "Don' spread it around!"

Tumblebrutus pulled away. "Everyone knows your burglars, Mungo."

"Oh, okay, then." Mungojerrie shrugged.

"You wanna be like us?" Rumpelteazer asked, looking intrigued. "And you though' you'd figga' it out by followin' us 'round?"

"Yeah, well…" He quickly cleared his throat, trying not to pay attention to the partners in crime smiling to each other. "So, I was thinking…since you want to make it up to me, that maybe I could join you on a mission or two…maybe?"

The tabby cats had a similar look on their face…one eyebrow raised, the side of their mouths curled up at one end. Mungojerrie was about to say something, but Rumpleteazer pulled him aside before anything could be said. They huddled together in deep conversation. Every once in a while, one of the pair looked over to Tumblebrutus, considered him, then went back into the deep conversation.

After a while, the brown and white was positive they had forgotten what they were originally talking about and had gone off on a tangent. When he saw them pointing at each other, and then laughing, he decided it was time to put an end to things and clear his throat to get their attention. They jumped apart like shrapnel and stood at attention.

"Okay!" Rumpelteazer announced, striking a pose for some unknown reason, her paws on her hips. ""Alrigh'! We've made our decision, and we decided that you can follow us aroun' a bit, if ya'd like!"

"Really?" he asked, shocked it was so easy.

Then Mungojerrie delivered the catch. "As long as you can keep up with us." Tumblebrutus' smile fell.

Why couldn't anything be easy?!