Tigerclaw

Today was the day. The day that a plan would be put into action. A plan that would lead to justice.

Tigerclaw lay patiently on the soft, dewy grass behind an abandoned Twoleg nest. It was in slightly better shape than the similar nest on ThunderClan territory. Princess had led him here. That had been three moons ago. He glanced at the small pile of bones in one corner, and the small tree covered in clawmarks. It had been hard keeping up his combat skills while stuck here for so long. But he had done it. Fireheart would never see him coming.

Tigerclaw tried not to think of Goldenflower. She invaded his dreams and his thoughts, but the seasoned warrior knew that thinking of her would only make him sad. That would lead to hate. Hate directed at Fireheart. And hate had no place in a good plan. But just wait until I get my paws on him. He'll wish he'd never entered the forest.

"Tigerclaw?" The warrior looked up at the worn fence before him. Princess was perched on top of it, next to a young, jet black cat. Princess was the only reason he had stayed sane throughout the first moon of his banishment. She had talked to him, and plotted with him.

He sat up, "Hello, Princess. You promised that I would be leaving today."

Princess gave a nod, "You're right. But first, I would like you to meet my leader. This is Tiny." Tigerclaw's gaze flickered with puzzlement as she gestured towards the small black cat. But the expression quickly disappeared. After all, some of the best warriors were the small ones. Nature had forced them to compensate for their size. Usually they accomplished this through sheer ferocity.

He gave a nod to the cat, "Greetings, Tiny. It's a pleasure to meet you."

The black cat gazed up at him, "And I'm glad to meet you, Tigerclaw. I've heard much about you."

"Good things I hope."

"Of course." He looked the large warrior up and down critically, seeming pleased with what he saw.

Princess cleared her throat, "Tiny, I was thinking that we could introduce him to the rest of us. After all, we can't wait too much longer. We have to move fast against Shredder before Fox takes over."

Tiny nods, "Good advice, Princess, as always. Tigerclaw, follow us." Tigerclaw followed them over the fence without hesitation. He found himself on a Thunderpath. His heart leaped into his throat, and he had to force himself not to sprint back over the fence. Then he saw that Tiny and Princess were completely unconcerned, so he forced himself to stay calm. If he couldn't trust them, then he couldn't trust anyone. He noticed that large, white Twoleg nests lined either side of the Thunderpath. These weren't the same dilapidated color as the one he had been hiding behind. And monsters were everywhere. They had every shape, size and color that he had ever seen, plus more. There was at least one sleeping in front of every nest, ready to pounce on any cats that upset them. Tigerclaw shuddered.

The trio of cats followed along the Thunderpath for a while, the hot black asphalt biting into their paw pads. The amount of nests increased with every turn of the Thunderpath. The Thunderpaths here were more littered with strange articles that looked like large white leaves. The air stunk even more, and the cats were forced to dodge the occasional twolegs. Tigerclaw's instincts screamed at him to run, or fight, or do anything but act calmly. Luckily, Tigerclaw had learned how to control his instincts long ago.

The sun was starting to sink by the time Tiny turned down one dirty alley between two disgusting twoleg nests. Inside, Tigerclaw was surprised to find it not nearly as bad as he expected. Strange brown cubes were arranged on either side of the alley, up against the walls. A large, green cube at the entrance to the alley was overflowing with disgusting smelling junk. Sitting atop it was a tawny she cat with sharp blue eyes. Her scent was completely masked by the sharp smelling stuff she was sitting atop, and Tigerclaw knew that she would be in perfect position for an ambush if anybody attacked this…. Camp.

Tiny nodded towards her, "That's my mate, Sasha. Sasha, this is Tigerclaw."

The she cat, Sasha, leaped down from her perch, "So this is the famed, Tigerclaw. I must say, I'm surprised that a kittypet-" she glared at Princess, "- could discover such a useful ally." Tigerclaw didn't know why, but the comment made him angry.

"I don't appreciate rogues," he stared calmly at Sasha, "Who try to insult my friends. I would take that back if I was you."

Tiny glared at Sasha.

"Alright," the beautiful she cat hissed, "Sorry, Princess."

Tiny led towards the brown cubes, "Those are our boxes. We have one for you, the one nearest to the front on the left side. You can put whatever you want in your box, but never touch anyone else's." Tigerclaw noticed that his "box" was empty. He would have to make at least some kind of nest to make it live able. But it would still be nothing like the coziness of the warrior's den back in ThunderClan. I'll get back there one day.

As he inspected his box, two cats approached him. Niether of them were very big, but they weren't as small as Tiny. Both of them were a smoky gray color. Each had a single black paw. They were muscular and lithe, and they carried themselves like experienced fighters. He noticed that they were positioned so that they could easily leap to each other's defense. They were unscarred, which proved just how good these two were.

Tiny introduced them, "These are Smoke and Haze. They're brothers. Smoke is the one whose front left paw is black. Haze's right front paw is black. That's the only way to tell them apart. Both cats regarded him with intelligent gray eyes. Tigerclaw had seen that look before. They were sizing him up. Finally one of them, Haze, gave a nod of approval. Tigerclaw dipped his head and turned back to Tiny.

"Where are the rest of your cats?"

Tiny looked uneasy, "Well… Actually… This is all we've got."

"What exactly are you guys planning on doing?"

Tiny's eyes glittered, "We're going to dethrone the Lord of Streets, Shredder."

Tigerclaw refused to let doubt creep into his heart, "And how many cats does he have?"

Tiny glanced at Princess, who cleared her throat uneasily, "Well… He's pretty much in command of every other street cat. In forest terms, he controls every rogue in twoleg place."

Tigerclaw looked from one to the other, "How exactly are we going to dethrone him?"

Tiny sat down, "You should know by now what a deadly weapon deceit can be. We'll use it to our advantage, growing our numbers and shrinking his. Then we'll move against him in force and I'll become the Lord." Tigerclaw was doubtful, but he decided not to tell Tiny. After all, if mousedung like Fireheart could use it, then why couldn't they? But there was still one problem.

"What do I get from all of this? Why do I need to help you?"

Tiny turned his piercing eyes on Tigerclaw, "Once we have the streets under our control, then we can help you take back the Clans. Trust me, you will get your revenge."

Sorry for posting this late, I've been very busy with school this past week. A chapter will be, as always, posted every monday and friday. Thanks for reading!