Warriors: Full Moon Ch. 26

    “It is, without doubt, a trap. We cannot fall for such a simple trick.”

    “Glaive, if we don’t listen to the Assassins, they’ll kill Alex and the other Untouchables.”

    “And if we do comply with their demands, the Untouchables will not be the only ones getting killed.”

    “I’m not going to let them die. Glaive, we’re going to the Boom Den together.”





    The two cats stood across the thunderpath from the ominous Boom Den. It was long past evening, probably midnight, and the clouds were still sprinkling drops of water all across the twolegplace. The den was right on the edge of the twolegplace, the only thing standing between them and the eastern fields that led to the forest. A fence similar to the Spark Den’s surrounded the entire Boom Den, rusted and bent in a few areas. By the first impression, it didn’t look like much of a special den at all, but colorful lights were barely visible spilling out the windows and cracks in the walls.

    Glaive and Echopaw leaped onto the fence with a bit of difficult from the wetness and examined the Boom Den further. Trees sprouted from the left and right side of the walls. The grass was nicely grown and moist from the rain. A path of stone led across the yard, steps led a tail-length up onto a balcony like the one he saw earlier. The den, made of some kind of stone and wood mix, was possibly 6 fox-lengths high with two windows on the bottom level and one bigger window on the top. With the condition it was in, Echopaw could guess either a twoleg lived here recently, or is still living here.

    Then Echopaw heard it. Some kind of pattern-filled sound was blasting from the den. It was weird. He had trouble trying to understand what it was. Feeling like only a second’s time, Echopaw found himself unconsciously walking toward the den’s entrance slowly. It... was soothing...

    “Snap out of it, Echopaw!” Glaive pounded his metal claw on Echopaw’s head. His chin hit the ground and brought him out of the trance.

    “Ow...” Echopaw meowed. “What was that for?”

    “The music...” Glaive narrowed his eye and stared at the den. “Ignore it, or you might find yourself helpless to stop Boom from killing you.”

    “Music? Is that what those sounds are?” He couldn’t help but try to decrypt the sounds and get himself caught in the trance again. This time around, Echopaw was able to slap himself with his paw before becoming a mindless tom. “Glaive, what do you know about Boom?”

    “Boom... was not that evil, before and after we weaponized him.” Glaive trotted toward the den, keeping his mind off the music by talking with Echopaw. “He was kind and friendly. After he was injured and healed, all he wanted to do was sit in the experiment room and listen to the radio. It was not until we gave him the collar and weaponized his voice when we realized the power he possessed was too great for him to control.”

    Echopaw studied him closely. “What do you mean?”

    “Boom lost his mind. His voice was unbalanced and screechy. My twolegs and I were always randomly getting ear pains, and everytime Boom tried to speak, he would go into a frenzy and unleash a deafening sound that could melt a cat’s mind if exposed to it for too long.” Glaive put a paw on the first step of the small stairway and sighed. “We locked him up. Alone, he only cherished the single object we gave him... The radio...”

    He still didn’t understand what a radio was, and half of the terms Glaive was using was unknown to Echopaw. He did grasp that Boom spent his life in seclusion after the screeching event. All alone... and it wasn’t even his fault...

    “Reaver found Boom while escaping from the lab. Why would Boom say no to an offer of freedom?...” Glaive forced himself to keep climbing the steps, his tail lowered and body slumped. “Last I heard, he currently has enough control to weaken and kill cats with his voice. A true Assassin.”

    “Have you ever wondered if Boom wasn’t as much as a killer you think he is?” Echopaw had to ask. Boom sounded like an average, kind tom. Even if the collar gave him the inability to control his own voice, what if there was still a good, innocent cat underneath that shade of terror?

    Glaive’s metal eye honed in on him. A cold breeze washed over Echopaw’s pelt at the sight of his haunting stare. “Never. I would recommend you deny the possibility as well, Echopaw, or you might as well be killing yourself.”

    He swallowed hard.

    “As soon as we step through this door, we are helpless to stop Boom from emitting his screech. Be ready to flee from this place as fast as possible if that happens. If we get caught in his vice of sound...” Glaive glared at the door and pushed his way into the den. “Your StarClan might be getting a new member in its ranks.”

    The two toms walked through the door together, bracing themselves into a room filled with light and sounds. Echopaw’s mind was nearly blown away by what he saw.

    It was a huge den inside. The floor in the middle of the room was raised, and all over it, lights flashed on and off different colors. The rest of the floor around the raised part was a black, short, fuzzy pelt of some kind.  On the walls, boards were attached to it to make platforms that could easily be scaled and sat on. On the top level of the boards were big boxes spitting out the sounds Echopaw was tranced into listening to.

    Further across the den was another raised platform of some kind. On it was large twoleg machines piled on top of each other, including large black boxes making the music. Above the jumble were hanging lights that shot out colors across the room. The sounds pounded on his ears, and somehow, Echopaw could finally sense the rhythm it had without being hypnotized.

    They cautiously creeped more into the room, checking every corner and dark spot for any sign of the Assassins. Glaive shot out a wide beam from his left eye lat illuminated some of the places that cats could hide, and luckily, nothing was there. Echopaw leaped onto the raised floor and looked at his paws.

    Underneath, the floor lit up with random colors. Green, yellow, red, blue, orange, purple, white... All across the floor were separate panels that did different patterns of colors. Forget the music, a cat would stare at this thing for hours! Echopaw knew the danger of being in here and shook himself out of it once more. No more trances!

    Glaive turned off the beam and came up beside Echopaw. Something about this was strange, and not just because the den looked like a different realm. The music continued to pour out of the boxes and pound into their ears. It was loud, but not loud enough to where a cat couldn’t yell over it.

    A yell wasn’t what they heard, though. A voice came directly from the boxes themselves over the music, rapid and soothingly paired with the music “Sound of beat and rhythm synchronize♪, and the music makes you fantasize♪! Each note is enough to tantalize♪ soul, body, mind, I sing! Harmonize♪! The world meant to witness the wonder♪ of anger and hate ripped asunder♪! Don’t mellow my mood or make me fall♪, cause my job in life is to entertain all♪! Boom in the house!”

    Echopaw was covering his ears and clenching his eyes shut by the time it was over. Nothing had happened. His ears didn’t hurt that much. He wasn’t crying out in pain for the music to stop. Rerunning the words back in his head, he sensed some sincerity in it.

    Then, the cat revealed himself. Boom, second leader of the Assassins.

    He stood on the machines at the other end of the room. A long blue furred tom with matching azure eyes, swirling tail, and a strange-looking collar tight around his neck. His smile was almost contagious how perfect it seemed, and he was bouncing himself to the beat in the music. The thing that stuck out about him was the object on his head covering part of his ears. Boom may be an Assassin, but he looked like a tom any cat could get along with.

    “I am Boom, don’t forget it♪! If you do, you’ll regret it♪! Come into my den, you will see♪, the music-loving cat, that is me♪! Hahahahahahahahaha!” Boom’s voice was enough to swoon a she-cat into! Echopaw sat to listen more, but to his dismay, the music stopped. Boom, running a paw across the twoleg machine moving a knob of some kind back and glanced straight at them, the smile on his face gone.

    Glaive growled, “Boom!”

    “Glaive... It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?” Boom ruffled his fur. “You haven’t changed. Still that cat that thinks I’m a monster and wants to lock me up in the darkest hole he can put me in.” He bared his teeth. “I’m never going to surrender to you, old furbag!”

    Glaive crouched. “Get down here, you coward!”

    “I’d rather not. Bass, Serena!” Boom pointed a claw at Glaive. “Detain him for me, will you?”

    Out of no where, two cats leap from the ceiling and land on top of Glaive. They easily took advantage of his size and weight and pinned him to the ground. Unsheathed claws to his neck by the she-cat and claws on his flank by the tom. Glaive was beaten instantly.

    Echopaw leaped back, wary to stay on the elevated floor and not fall off. He readied to pounce at the cats on top of Glaive.

    “Stop!” Boom yelled.

    He fell to his chin gripping his ears. Echopaw winced in pain as Boom’s voice echoed out the boxes at a high, squealing pitch. So this was what Glaive warned him about. It really did make his ears hurt!

    The vibrating sound died down. Boom moved the piece away from his mouth from the object on his head. He meowed, “You’re the cat I wanted to see, not Glaive. What’s your name, young one?”

    What was going on? Echopaw got back on his feet, turning his attention away from the squirming Glaive and onto the cat on the stage. He tentatively said, “I’m Echopaw... Leader of StoneClan.”

    “StoneClan...” Boom was grinning again and he said, “I am excited to meet you.”

    Excited? Why did Boom seem like he was on Echopaw’s side? Wasn’t he an Assassin? Isn’t he going to kill him? Echopaw responded, “You... you’re excited to meet me?”

    Boom flicked his tail. “Tell Glaive to calm down. Then we will talk.”

    Echopaw could agree with Boom that Glaive was overreacting. He was angry and filled with hatred toward Boom. “Of anger and hate ripped asunder, don’t mellow my mood or make me fall,” Just like in his song...

    “Glaive,” Echopaw meowed.

    “Echopaw! What are you doing?!” Glaive struggled under the two cats’ grips. He attempted to push them off, but to no avail. He shouted, “You are siding with the Assassin!? Do you truly want to die? He is just tricking you!”

    “If he wanted to kill me, don’t you think he would have already done that by now?”

    Glaive paused his futile struggle and glared at Echopaw.

    The moment was tense.

    “Fine...” Glaive went limp and grunted, “Can you get off me now?”

    Bass and Serena looked to Boom for the order. He shrugged and waved his tail. At the direction, the two cats removed their paws from Glaive and retreated to Boom’s side on the stage of twoleg machines.

    Glaive got back on his feet again and sat down, drained from the one-way fight. “Spit it out, Boom. What do you have to say?”

    He shook his head. “I don’t have anything to say to you. My talk is with Echopaw.” Boom whispered something to his partners. They nodded and disappeared into the darkness of the corners. “Echopaw, buddy... You killed Necron. You defeated Volt. All your talent is frightening! Ha! Almost makes me want to make a song about you.” He leaped all the way across the stage onto the colorful raised floor and approached Echopaw from a safe distance. “I wanted to meet the honorable and powerful Echopaw, and Reaver gave me that chance. The one good thing that rat of a cat has ever done!”

    Echopaw sprayed out the questions. “You are an Assassin! Why aren’t you trying to kill us?”

    “Well, that’s no fun is it?” Boom shot his glance to the ceiling and put a paw on his whiskers. “Life is about having fun. It wouldn’t be entertaining for me just to kill you right here, nor would it entertain you.”

    “Your job in life is to entertain all...” Echopaw repeated the words from the song.

    “Exactly.”

    “Then why are you an Assassin?”

    “Reaver forced me into being one. When Reaver found me in that lab, he told me I had to listen to every word he said from then on if I wanted to be free and live.”

    Glaive asked, "Reaver is forcing you to be an Assassin? To kill cats?"

    “I don’t try to kill cats. Reaver forces me to ‘assassinate’ cats, but I secretly let them go. Most cats just go deaf for a few weeks, and at the very most go crazy from the music. The only time I truly kill is when I am up against those eastern forest owl-hooters. They try to kill me, and I react in self-defense.”

    Echopaw couldn’t see anything wrong in that. Glaive replied, “Are you telling the truth?”

    “Absolutely.” Boom blocked out Glaive and stared at Echopaw again. “Echopaw, if you can defeat Reaver, then I’ll be free.” He walked closer to Echopaw. “I want to be the cat who plays music for other’s enjoyment! Not be forced to assassinate cats.”

    He was on Echopaw’s side alright. Echopaw could see it in Boom’s eye that he was being sincere. “Boom...”

    The music started back up again. Boom turned around to see Serena turning on the sound again from the board he once stood on. He smiled and raced back to her. “Did you bring them out?”

    She replied, “Bass is bringing them now.”

    “Excellent!” He shouted. Boom shoved Serena off the machine and pushed a medley of knob in different directions. The music changed and distorted as he fiddle with the machine.

    Echopaw watched as a group of four cats came out from another room. In the front was Bass, the tom from before, and behind him were a blonde tom with a scarf around his neck, a brown and black strangely lithe she-cat, and an orange-yellow tabby with a red, white, and blue object on her head like Dimitri’s. Alex, Xiu, and Sarah. The Untouchables!

    He was about to jump down until he was stopped by Serena. She roughly shoved him back into the center of the elevated floor and smirked.

    Almost ready to attack her, Echopaw was interrupted by Boom.

    “Echopaw! You aren’t getting out of this that easily!” He laughed. “Did you think I’d just give the Untouchables back to you? No way!”

    “What are you talking about?!” Echopaw shouted over the music at Boom. “They’re coming back with us!”

    “Let me tell you a story, leader of StoneClan... Reaver ordered me to kill you and the Untouchables as soon as you entered that door. You are lucky I don’t play that way, but don’t think you are going to take them back without a fight.” Boom began bouncing to the beat like before. “A courageous young tom with shining eyes♪ with the power to defeat the vile♪, was in for a fearsome surprise♪, an unexpected, mind-blowing trial♪!” He leaped from the stage and onto the raised floor again. “The only way to set his friends free♪ and spread a hope for world harmony♪ he has to beat a daunting enemy♪! And that music-loving foe is me♪! Hahahahahahahahaha!”