Warriors: Full Moon Ch. 19

    “This is Echopaw, leader of StoneClan.”

    Echopaw tried to look somewhat equal with the others. They were all bigger than him, and had that same judgemental look on their face. He stood up for himself and said, “It’s good to meet you all.”

    Platinum grunted, “I guess it’s only proper to thank you. A while back, I was greeted by a couple of my Fighters that had been taken prisoner by the Poi-... Fen. Their freedom was because of your effort to fight the Broken Hearts, and for that, I am grateful.”

    Echopaw remembered the others he had freed, and Gena from StoneClan’s Guests. They made it home safely. He bowed to her and responded, “I was just doing what any cat would do.”

    “Well, not all cats would do what you did, so shut it and accept the compliment.” She sounded strict and nice at the same time. Her expression didn’t show either. Echopaw didn’t know how to react to her reply. She turned to the other three toms behind her. “If you haven’t heard already, we are the leaders of the Fighters. I’m Platinum, and this is Gold,”

    Gold was a yellow tabby with orange stripes along his back. His fur was fluffed and mangled, and his ears and face had definitely seen it’s days.

    “Silver,”

    Silver’s fur was similar to Platinum’s, but his frame was bulkier and his tail longer. He had earned a plethora of scars along with a peculiar object around his neck. His ears were the tallest of the four, and he was probably the most attentive too.

    “And Bronze.”

    Bronze was smaller, but stout. Brown fur flat, but body wide, he looked like he had eaten too much. Another closer depiction showed that the fat was actually muscle. His eyes were a hazel brown, wide and narrow, and his legs were short and thick. Bronze’s appearance was odd, but Echopaw could see he could fight long and hard.

    Platinum turned her lithe head to the other cat standing in place where Claude should be. “And who are you? You aren’t the leader of the Poisons. Where is that Claude?”

    The tom closed his eyes. “I’m sorry to inform you all, but Claude has been horribly injured. We are keeping him at our camp.”

    “What? Why did you not bring him to me? I can heal him.” Glaive asked hesitantly.

    “Glaive, Volt got a hold of him...”

    Platinum and Glaive gasped a little. Glaive flared his nose and his one good eye twitched.

    “Volt’s weapons are too powerful. The damage he causes cannot be helped. We are caring for him until he... passes.” The tom backed away. “But on his dying wish, we will help you. The Poisons still feel they have not repaid the debt of Echopaw ridding us of Fen.”

    Echopaw felt sad and selfish. “T-there isn’t any need for y-you to repay me. I was just d-doing what was right. I-if you can’t fight, I understand. You’ve already done so much for StoneClan.”

    He opened his eyes and stared hard at Echopaw. “We don’t care. Even though you may feel the debt has been repaid, we still want to fight with you against the Assassins. They have been a plague on us from the beginning.” The tom bowed to them, and walked back to the other couple of Poisons at the edge of the clearing.

    The meeting was solemn. Echopaw knew why Claude had gotten hurt. He was stopping the Assassins from coming to the forest. Without him, they might have never gotten to the Twolegplace. StoneClan might have been destroyed. Silently, Echopaw hoped to see him in StarClan, but then he realized that Claude wasn’t a warrior... He stopped thinking about it and returned to the conversation.

    Platinum flicked her ears and looked to Glaive. “Now then, are you going to explain to the rest of everyone the plan you came up with? Or was that plan just a lie?”

    “I...” Glaive didn’t look good. His face was still frozen from the tom’s news about Claude. The metal on his head was buzzing again. “I... I... Platinum, please forgive me, but my memory is not what it used to be. I seemed to have lost the plan in a cloud of confusion.”

    “I can respect you Glaive...” Her face turned a light shade of red. “But not when you go and screw up like this!”

    Echopaw stomped his paw. “Calm down. If he can’t remember, then let’s think of one together! Isn’t that what this is all about? Us working together to face the Assassins?” He shot a glance at Glaive. “But I do believe Glaive isn’t telling us something.”

    His metal parts were definitely choking up. Glaive held his paws to his head. “Echopaw, I never wanted to tell this to anyone... They were a mistake I so gravely regret.”

    Platinum stepped closer. “What are you hiding?”

    “Please do not be angry with me...” Glaive sat up and closed his right eye. His left metal eye dimmed, and stopped buzzing. With a shallow breath, his words echoed in the cat’s ears around him. “I created the Assassins.”

    “What!?” Platinum yelled.

    Echopaw was stupefied, but not enough to yell. Platinum had a temper.

    “They were a dreadful and terrifying mistake! My owners and I were unwise to have even imagined them into existence. I couldn’t sleep for moons, and when I did, I was met with deadly nightmares.”

    “You mean to tell me cats have died because of you?!” Platinum loomed over Glaive like he was a mouse. “Tens of Fighters... dead... Because of the Assassins you created?”

    Some of the cats around the clearing heard Glaive, but all of them heard Platinum. Whispers and angry looks began appearing from the Fighters and Poisons, while StoneClan was just stumped by the news.

    Echopaw needed to calm them down. “Let Glaive explain himself. He already showed enough regret to realize he would have never created them if he had a second chance.” But the simple question still was unanswered. “Glaive, why did you create the Assassins?”

    Glaive frowned, and a real tear came from his right eye. “It wasn’t meant to turn out this way... I was still just getting used to my new body. A metal eye and paw. My new owners were ambitious, not to communicate with us, but to create cats like me. We were at least sane enough to take injured cats and not upwalker cats or loners right off the street. When we did, we fixed and upgraded them... Or in other terms, weaponized them.”

    Platinum was ready to kill. The only thing keeping her back was the invisible truce they had with each other. Echopaw hoped Glaive’s story ended with a whole lot of remorse.

    “For Volt... He had lost his ability to move. His spine was broken. We fixed it, but his nerves were too far gone to fully repair. To compensate, we gave his electricity. The capability to not only power his nerves, but wield it like a weapon.

    “For Boom, he lost his voice and ability to hear. We were able to fix his ears, but his ability to speak almost seemed impossible to return to him. So we gave him a collar that allowed him to speak. Not only that, he can emit a sound that could hurt anyone’s ears, or even make a cat go deaf.

    “And Reaver... Oh Reaver!... Platinum, please forgive me for bringing such a beast into the world! I should have never healed him in the first place.”

    Platinum growled, “You remember what he did to me? What he took away from me?”

    Glaive tucked his head into his shoulders. “Yes! Yes! He was the most evil cat I could have ever fixed. I found him one day, almost dead with a twoleg knife impaled into his body. Me and my owners healed him, but before we could modify him further, he turned on us. Reaver... He nearly killed me. He stole Volt and Boom away from us, and tricked them into using their weapons for evil.

    “It wasn’t until I came across the den Reaver lived in when I discovered the truth...”

    Platinum gritted her teeth. “You know as well as anyone does what Reaver has the ability to do.” Echopaw was dumbfounded by it all. All of it sounded terrible, but what could Reaver do that was so horrifying?

    “I found that Reaver was indeed attacked by his owners, but not before they had found him standing on a twoleg with a knife in it’s chest.” Glaive’s head trembled. “Reaver... had nearly killed a Twoleg.”

    What?! That... sounded... impossible... The entire crowd of cats surrounding them broke into an outburst of voices. The Fighters yelled angrily, Poisons shouted and stomped their paws, and StoneClan and the others were in a state of unbelief, just like Echopaw was. Glaive created killers, not only of cats, but of Twolegs!

    Platinum’s eyes were set aflame and she was ready to pounce. “You created monsters...”

    “And you do not know how much I regret every second of it! My twolegs and I committed ourselves never to weaponize cats ever again! We even created a whole place where the cats we heal are sent to live in peace with each other and keep them safe!” Glaive begged, “Please Platinum, forgive me. All of you... can you forgive me for my stupidity?”

    She backed away, claws unsheathed. Echopaw jumped in front of Glaive and defended him. “Platinum, that’s enough.” He met her searing gaze. “Glaive is a good cat. From the beginning, all I saw in him was the desire to create a place where cats, not only the injured ones but healthy ones as well, could live in harmony. He already showed how he felt about Volt, Boom, and Reaver. He hated them, and dies a little inside when he hears what they have done.” Echopaw wanted to growl, but he stopped himself and said, “Glaive can help. He knows more about the Assassins than any of us. Maybe he can tell us their weaknesses.”

    “The Assassins have no weaknesses!” Platinum retorted. “They strike when cats least expect and kill them instantly.”

    “No Platinum... They were mistakes.” Glaive recovered from his despair and stood up. “Mistakes have weaknesses. They were never perfected, especially Reaver.”

    “Hmph.” She sat back down, claws still out. “Then what’s the plan, kit?”

    She was asking him? Echopaw felt like he would freeze up, but something inside him clicked. “We have to deal with each one individually. We push them back until the last one is defeated. Who’s leading the charge against the twolegplace, all three of them?”

    “Volt.” Platinum grunted. “He has been taking all sorts of assassins on rampages all over the upwalkerplace.”

    “Then we defeat him first. We must stop them from killing cats.” Echopaw turned to Glaive, who had wiped his tears away and become tall again. “Can you tell us about Volt?”

    Glaive nodded. “Volt wears a pack on his back that generates sparks all over his body, mostly on the wires wrapped around him. Electricity. With one touch, it can kill you if you are exposed to it for too long.”

    “So how can we stop him?”

    “Volt is insane. All that electricity fried his brain, and he can’t think straight.” Glaive widened his eyes. “I remember part of the plan!”

    Platinum and the rest of the cats listened closely as Echopaw and Glaive put two and two together. Each one took turns explaining how it would work. The sun centered in the middle of the sky and brightened the entire forest. From remorse to recollection, a mission that would change the twolegplace forever exploded from the minds of two aspiring cats.

    In the shadows of a tree, a hidden figure listened to the conversation and smiled.

    “Master Reaver and Volt will be pleased to hear this...”