Chapter 7: Take Your Best Shot
"Again, and this time do it a little harder." A gruff yet stern voice demanded.
Blood oozed freely from a fresh cut above the young tom's left eye. Claws on the brink of ripping from his paws but he kept going. He had to. In order to become the best leader for his father, for his sister. He leaped into the air, unsheathing his claws and crashing into to stoic frame of a battle-scarred tom.
The older cat easily flicked the kit away with a twitch of his shoulder. Silver rolled off but sprang up only to be knocked down again and earn another scratch on his cheek. He hissed as pain like fire shot through his muzzle.
"Pathetic." The tom growled in his ear. Breath stinking of carrion. "Silver, if you're to earn any respect from me-leader of the Boulder Troop-then you will push past your limits and at least try to kill me."
The tom let him up only for him to catch his breath. Silver's muscles twitch from the strain of training from the day he left his mother's side. He didn't mind much at least when his father wasn't around. He glanced at the impatient tom as his eyes burned to continue. His father relented only when needed most. This was the only exception. To catch your breath, not lick your wounds and take a break.
"Again."
His father crouched ready to launch into the air once more with his bruised son. Silver shook himself, readying his aching paws as he too met the swipe of his father with his own brutal strike.
Silver's yowl of fury was knocked right out of his mouth. He stumbled to the ground and Ore mercilessly tore into his shoulder. Teeth biting hard on straining muscle as the young kit shrieked for some sort of relief. His father's jaw did not slacken.
He knew he would receive no mercy. His father was a relentless city boss and any kind of weakness was not passed under his careful watch. No, Ore pressed his bite harder on Silver until he could taste the copper taste of blood on his gums. Silver retaliated by catching the tom's ear, tearing his claws into the nicked, tender flesh.
Ore released his iron-jaw grip. Blood staining both tabby pelts. Silver inspected his shoulder. It twitched under his gaze. It will heal completely in a week or so he hoped it would.
"Better, you still have a lot of room to improve in your fight." Ore commented. His tongue rasped along his paw twice before swiping his pulsating ear.
Silver took deep breaths. He was still tense not knowing when his father would come and strike him down again. The older Silver grew the more unpredictable Ore became. This was all apart of the program in being a true leader of the East City. From birth he knew that. Even that resentful look Ore always gave when he looked at him or his sister.
Such disappointment he sees. The young tom thought. My potential is lacking. Joint leaders is the last thing he wanted for heirs. Now, he has double the duty of raising on his mind. More time wasted on his part.
"I'll give you a fight." Silver snapped back. Ore didn't anticipate the silver tabby to get right back on his feet and so soon from a serious injury.
Nonetheless, it didn't impress the serious tom within the slightest.
Golden fur pressed against Silver's side as he bent down to take a bite of a half-eaten rat. Fatigue welled up in his eyes but he chewed anyway hoping that that would keep him awake.
"How did it go?" The she-cat beside him questioned.
Silver mashed his teeth together barely listening. "Swell," He swallowed before continuing. "Ore still hates me with a passion but that's nothing new. Trains me until I break or if I break him. Which ever comes first."
"I'm sorry you have to put up with him like that, Silver." She sighed, blue eyes twinkling with guilt. "If I had half of your size or strength I wouldn't have my little brother going through such rigorous training."
Silver looked at her, smiling sadly. "Don't say that, Gold. I'm doing this for the both of us. What I lack you make up for. That's why Ore is making us two leaders one. You have the brains." He dabbed her nose with his less aching paw.
"And I have the brawn. We stick together through it all." He purred as she giggled.
"Honestly, Silver, you seem to perk me up at the worst of times." She nudged the rest of the rat carcass to him.
"Eat," she insisted, "you need all the strength you can muster to face Father."
The silvery tom wanted to scowl when Gold mentioned Ore by a name anything but a sweet and loving 'father'. He bit into the bony rodent one last time thrusting the rest into his sister's paws.
"I've had my fill. What I need now is sleep." He extended his tail for her to reach. Her short legs working twice as hard to keep up with her thin but well muscled kit-brother.
"Things will get better just you wait and see." She encouraged her brother as both sibling disappeared into the dark.
Blood painted the cobblestone pavement red. A hoarse chuckling rang out through the break of dawn as cats flooded into the smaller corner where Silver, Gold and their new recruit were hiding.
"Kill the little one first." The leader spat as one of his lackeys raced forward to tackle down and kill Gold. Silver was too slow to react in time despite the blood pounding in his ears.
"No!" Silver screeched when his saw the clash of pelts; golden and an ugly brown fur closing in. Another shadow flew by him just as the rogue's claws, posed to strike fell down on his sister. Her eyes wide with fear something he's never known her to experience.
It all happened so fast. The sound of flesh being ripped apart. The blood-gurttling scream. The thud of a dead weight body hitting the ground and a river of blood flowing freely beneath all three.
His eyes blinked many times. Silver pelted over just to see streaks of blood over Gold. He checked her injuries but she shook her head.
"It's not any of mine." She gasped. Lightheaded with relief he took steady breath but the danger was still with them.
Silver looked over to see Rat, twitching and barely alive and the rogue who attacked stepping away with just the tips of his whisker pulled back. He rejoined with his leader who instantly killed him for his insolence.
"Fool," the black tom spat. "Should have finished her off while you had the chance."
The large tabby growled taking several steps forward with Gold by his side.
The tom smirked. "Oh, two little kits ready to take on the big and mighty Bane? Ha! Don't make me laugh." He flicked his tail as his cats advanced on the two city rogues.
"Ore's reign has ended or so I've been told. Time to wipe the streets clean of such leftover filth." Bane groused. His muscles rippling under his dark pelt taking a place among his band of rogues.
"You heard right," Gold spoke up defiantly against the city boss. "Silver and I successfully outwitted and overpowered him. Careful, you might end up just like my dear, late Father." Her soft his turned into a ferocious snarl.
Bane chuckled. "Oh, really?" He mused. "Take your best shot. That is, if you have the guts to fight against a whole band of us."
Silver took another step, claws itching to wipe that smirk off Bane's scar-riddled face. "The pleasure of spilling your bowels on this stony ground will be mine."
Gold hummed, syncing each step with her brother's. She gazed down at Rat as his final moments were passing.
Your sacrifice will not be in vain.
""The only ones walking out here alive will be the two of us!" Gold declared. Bane's cats laughed at her. The cunning genius since her father before her!
Bane growled. "Enough talk, let our claws do the rest for us, eh?" He charged with his fourteen other cats.
Ore would have laughed the misassembled troop. Silver would laugh too if wasn't busy slitting throats of such an unorganized group. Moments before they had them at their necks. Gold had her ways of working around such messy tactics and went on with crush their windpipes or cracking their spine until hey dropped dead.
Bane was the last to fall by the paws of him.
"Any last words?"
Bane struggled despite himself. "You can rot in hell!" The black tom spat in his face.
Silver regarded him as the spit dribbled down his chin before lurching forward and ripping the tom's throat out. Blood gushed from the open wound and Bane gasped to breath before growing still.
The tom smirked devilishly at his accomplishment. They were going to be the ultimate leaders. Silver and Gold; two sides of the same coin. The intelligent and the strong. Brother and sister until death comes at their doorsteps. They would be the unstoppable force or so they believed.
"Come brother," Gold brushed against his side the thrill of the battle flashed in her eyes. "We have a lot of work to do."
A/N: Dedicated to a very ecstatic fan of mine who's taken quite a liking to Silver/Valention. There's more stories about these daring littermates that's yet to be discovered! The story is a tad disoriented, however, I'll have a piece together from start to finish once I get through the sling of one-shots.