Summary: Imperfection. A revolting ideal which brought the cats of the clans forward to an era of striving perfection. But perfection is unachievable, for nothing is perfect. The "Perfected" however, are in constant evolution, android cats capable of updating and upgrading themselves. In this new world of marginalisation through perfection, how will the "Imperfect" cats cope with the eternal struggle of surviving? Forced to live in a world wrought with despair through the dictatorial leadership of the Sirens, a group of high ranking cats in the nation that prides themselves on their goal of continual perfection, how will the imperfect fight back to finally end their oppression and push for a new era of hope for all cats perfect or imperfect?

Chapter 1: Siren Call

Vuella

In this world, there is a food chain, hierarchal status. There are the top, leaders of the world, the Sirens. They enforce, control and create the Perfected. Their control of the Perfected allow themselves basically dictatorial power over the entire world.

Then there are the Perfected themselves, Android Cats with the capability to self-evolve. Used for military, safeguarding and many other jobs, they are the prime objective of the National Council of Cats (NCC).

Dynamics, the followers of the Sirens, they will rush to appease their demands and in return are rewarded with positions of influence.

And there are the rest, us. The Imperfect, the weak mortal minds that do not believe in the continuation of perfection. The oppressed…

But we are fighters, and even in a time so plagued with darkness and distraught… We will fight fang and claw, to survive.

Andratas

The Central Market, it's always bustling with business and crowded with cats from all over. It's truly a place of trade and commerce abroad. Less so for the people of Catacus City. Or at least, the imperfect. The imperfects have been suppressed, their freedoms stripped. So in order to survive, we have resorted to trading illegally in a black market scheme. Still, everyone knows everyone, it's really a silent yet acknowledged law. We all help each other in order to survive. So trade is well, cats are friendly, the bazaar is teeming with life deemed imperfect.

Beneath the ground where the Central Markets stands, lay the true market, for the majority of the citizens, yet despite catering many, it is smaller than the Central Market.

"What do we need?"

An innocent, high pitched voice piped up.

Shelly has not learnt of the horrors of our oppression, and she did not deserve to. She deserves to live free. After our parents died, I swore that I would protect her from everything, but can I truly protect her from the oppression we face and the Sirens that caused it?

"We just need a few necessities, luckily for us, Aunt Mink was generous enough to offer us a discounted price. Isn't that wonderful?" I replied. If I couldn't protect something this precious, it is truly a sign this land has already been far too tainted from the evil of the Sirens.

"Yeah!" She smiled. Too innocent. Too happy. If I die, then I need to die knowing my life mission has been fulfilled, keeping her like this.

We keep walking through the slums, where most imperfects live, by the outskirts of the city on the crater's edge. The leaders have essentially marginalised us from the rest. For within the city centre, down in the crater, with luxurious sandstone buildings and stone brick paved paths, lay the leaders and followers of the government and in the centre of it all, the Central Market with the Siren Centre overshadowing it.

But it didn't even matter if they erected stone walls and grilled gates to keep us out of the city centre, there was no reason for us to enter anyways and no reason for them to enter into our slums anyways. Well, apart from bullying us further, showing dominance over us. Making us fear them.

I shook my head and kept padding along, I have no reason to care about this, all I care about is surviving and protecting her.

Small secret openings around the slums allowed us access into the deep tunnels. From there, the tunnels lead us to the centre of the city below the central market. All around the edges of the crater, the entire ring of slums, therefore, have access to the vital means of survival. Water dripped from the crack along the walls and roof of the tunnels. Slimy sewage ran along canals within these pipelines. The tunnels were, in fact, an abandoned project of the Sirens. What for? Nobody truly knew. Some believed it to be for a sewage system that would extend into the slums, but many disagreed, why would the Sirens care about them anyways? No, no, no. There was something more sinister, perhaps a transport system for their toys, the Perfected. Nobody had any idea, and that instigated far among us.

We padded along these dark and rotting passages with the nauseating scent and the tiny scampers of fleeing rats. It should have been difficult to remember the way, however, after a few wrong turns, you will have a visual map ingrained in your mind. The real problem is the boredom and tiredness, it's a long walk to the centre and the scent didn't help. That, however, didn't bother Shelly, she pranced and sung with seemingly endless energy. Whilst I struggled to have energy abundant enough for the lifestyle we live.

Eventually, the dazzling light illuminated the tunnels, and the shadows retreated from the tunnel walls tearing away to reveal a great cavern. Rows and rows of stalls, selling everything from claw attaches to food. Paths too thin for the crowds of cats within. Steps led down from the dozen tunnels ringing the cavern, allowing for the masses to enter the bazaar. Unfortunately, it was also a great placed to get stuffed and crushed within each other.

"'Scuse me coming through!"

"Oi you're crushing me!"

"Sorry!"

"Only one Hayst for these Catenfruits! Get them now!"

Voices littered through the stuffed air of the cavern, without proper ventilation it was difficult to breathe and with the number of cats fitting into one small cavern, it was not the most ideal place to be in, but if it is what we must do to survive…

"Ah, truly music to my ears." I joked, sarcasm dripping from my voice.

"Come on! Let's go see Auntie Mink!" Shelly screamed in my ear before running off through the crowds.

"Kits these days," I grumbled before following suit.

We walked through the tight streets of the market, with a flood of cats pushing against us. All the while Shelly was singing, cats were bartering and I was exchanging greetings.

"Hey Andratas!" A cat yowled from a stall, his voice being basically drowned out from all the other noises.

"Hey!"

"Good Morning to you Andratas!" Another called out from within the crowds.

"You too!"

In our community you didn't need to know or see who you were talking to, you just needed to know that they were part of your community, with the same goal, to survive.

"AUNTIE MINK!" Shelly howled, before tackling the she-cat behind the stall in front of us.

"Hahaha, hey there Shelly." She purred back.

"Hey Aunt Mink." I greeted, "Sorry for Shelly, she's hyper today." I scratched my head, "Actually she's always hyper."

"Oh not at all, she is quite welcome in my embrace and so are you." She smiled lovingly.

"I'll pass." I declined. "I did, however, hear you had a discounted price for Catenfruits, Rat tails and Snarpleaf, am I right?"

"Oh certainly, special discount just for you two." Putting Shelly down, much to her displeasure, she smiled. "After all, we have to help each other in times of crisis like this eh."

I shuffled nervously. "What ever do you mean?"

She shook her head, "A drought hit the western regions of the nation. Crops and livestock are in quite of a shortage."

"Lucky for you, your aunt is a professional stockpiler and an excellent foreteller." She winked, "Which is why I run a side job of scamming the elites!"

I laughed, "Well, in that case, we are quite set to survive another crisis and famine aren't we?"

She bit her lip and looked and Shelly, who was jumping around up and down and salivating at the number of Catenfruit Aunt Mink had in her stall.

"Shelly, can you do us a favour and run along and play on the street?"

"Ok!" Dashing away.

"Come along now Andratas." She beckoned me into the back room of her stall.

The back room was small and cozy, only really furnished by a small stool and a table. The rest of the room was filled with Catenfruits, Fur Pieces and the likes. Following her, Aunt Mink beckoned me to sit down on one of the two stools.

"Why did you bring me here?" I queried.

"Times are changing Andratas. Flames of rebellion have been stoked and the imperfect are fighting back. It's rumoured that the drought was in fact not a drought, rather the result of an act of rebellion. Whether this was the rebellion's doing or the Siren's, it is not clear. But one thing is known. A crisis is one our hand, and an era of terror may be on the horizon." She exhaled, before continuing shining eyes on my figure, "I know you care for your sister very much, but as part of your family albeit your extended family I cannot bear to see you joining the flames that will raze the nation."

"Join the flames that raze the nation." I echoed.

"You must hide or run or both. You may know the Siren's as ignorant, and being blind to our suffering. But they are not. They are purposefully biding their time, waiting to strike, to finally and decisively end the imperfects. It is only a matter of time." She pleaded.

I shuddered. I could run away from the nation, start a life anew with Shelly, letting her grow up without these horrors. But if what was said was true…

Then it may already be too late…

KABOOM!

An explosion ravaged the cavern walls, rocks began falling from the roof and the screams of cats can be heard reverberating through the market.

"What's going on!" I yelled in panic.

"No, I always feared this day would come." Aunt Mink whispered.

"What?!"

Shelly, suddenly busted into the room and leapt onto me, crying. "Big Brother, there's a lot of scary cats that came in through the roof!"

I swivelled onto Aunt Mink, "What's going on?"

She stared at me with empty eyes, all hope drained from them.

"The Sirens have found out."

A/N: The ages of kits and adult cats are different from the books and this story. Kits are basically like human aged kids for cats. Think of it as human character but in a cat's body. Kits ages are basically the same, and due to natural evolution, in my story, cats have longer life spans about 50 human years. Also yes, humans are gone from this universe, more will be expanded on in later chapters. If you wish to submit an OC, feel free to submit a review or PM detailing their name, age, gender, social class (Sirens, Dyncamics or Imperfect (Not accepting Perfected)*), personality and maybe even a bio or short backstory if you wish to create your own figure in the storyline.

*Sirens are the leaders of the nation and are the ones controlling and creating the Perfected. Dynamics are followers of the Sirens who are rewarded with positions of influence and power in exchange for their loyalty or their subservience in the military. Imperfects are the common or poor folk, they are the oppressed and are mostly against the ideals of the Siren's teachings, lives among the slums while the Sirens and Dynamics are elites who live in the rich city centre.