Flame POV

    I didn't wince as my paw pad stepped on a pebble, for I had tough paws on all four feet. Everyone around here did. It's something you need to survive in Runberg City here.

    My ears were high and alert, my tail ready and straight in case I needed to bolt. Always be careful in the city, my mother told me when a I was just a young kit. You have no idea what cats would ambush you.

    I was always prepared when I first left my mother, carefully scanning the alleys and trash cans, the broken windows and shadows, as I trekked along the sidewalk. I still do it these days. Better safe than sorry, mother always chanted. I turned away companionship from cats that weren't careful. They'd ask me, I'd say, "I'll think about it," and study them as they went their own way down the city road. If they weren't careful, I'd disagree. Chances are they'd be kidnapped or something so I wouldn't have to deal with it anyways.

    I scented Bat before I saw him. The dark brown tom gingerly trotted out of an alley, a quick glance at the rising moon. He must have heard me coming, for he turned his head.

    "Hey, Flamey," he purred, narrowing his ice blue eyes respectfully. "What are you doing tonight? I heard that pizza place down the road was pretty busy today, they'll have some good scraps."

    My mouth watered at the thought. I was just heading from a burger joint, but some other strays got there first. And I was heading in that direction, anyways.

    "Fine," I eventually agreed. "Let's go."

Bat grinned and we began walking together, side-by-side.

"Meet any Gangs recently?" I asked him.

"Why? Thinking about joining one?"

"Nah, they just seem to be everywhere. And I want to know who I'm dealing with if I ever get into a fight with them. And you didn't answer my question."

The dark tom cocked his head. "Uh, well, I was trying to find a place to sleep two nights ago. I find the perfect place, a fresh cardboard box with newspapers in the bottom, in the corner of an alley with a drainpipe for water, only to be kicked out by those flea-bitten jerks!"

"Let me guess. Alleyway gang?"

"Who else?" Bat snorted. "I wasn't even their alley. Uh, I think. Or it was the alley next to their's..." His ice blue gaze looked blank. "Uh... You know what, never mind. You got any stories?"

I blinked, searching my brain. I had just remembered the time when I had argued with a rat over a piece of bread when I heard a faint, terrified caterwauling.

"Did you hear that?" I whispered, skidding to a halt.

Bat looked at me intently. "Hear what?"

"That... That yell."

And once again, I heard the faint yowl. It was slightly louder and more frantic, and I could easily determine it to be a cat.

"There it was again!"

"I heard it," Bat muttered. "Do you think a cat's getting attacked by a gang?"

"I'm not sure, but they're definitely in pain." I paused, pursing my lips. "And agony."

Bat leaped forward. "Come on, let's go see what it is!" Startled, I took after him, still keeping my eyes and ears open for any danger. My fluffy orange and yellow fur was pressed against my sides as we bolted towards the sound of the howling. It was louder, and more frequent, as we finally slowed down at the pizza place it was coming from. That's a coincidence.

Bat thrust his ears forward and quietly lowered his tail to say, Let's go check it out, but lie low and keep out of sight. I nodded and followed him as we pressed ourselves against the brick wall and turned the corner into the alley, where we were in the shadows. I could see everything else for it was illuminated by moonlight.

I had expected to see a cat being attacked by the Alleyway Gang, or perhaps just a mob of cats. But what I saw was not either of those.

There was a cat getting hurt, who was a skittish pale tabby named Larry. But the thing hurting him was not cats, but three humans.

They were all male. One had black hair on its head, another had brown, and the third had red. They were shrieking and laughing as they threw rocks and old cans at Larry, who was pressed against the wall and yelling. His shoulder was bleeding, and every time he tried to scramble under the dumpster, the black-haired human would kick it, scaring him back out again.

"Humans!" Bat cursed under his breath. "What jerks. They're hurting him... And they like it! Can't those idiots see he's bleeding?"

I couldn't speak. This was awful and so very, very sickening.

He wasn't careful.

With that, I thrust myself forward and leaped towards the nearest human.

*****

Larry POV

This was painful.

I was only trotting along and stopped when I smelled pizza. Through astonished eyes I watched as the owner of the place dumped a whole garbage bag of half eaten pizza slices into the dumpster, right there, for me to eat. After he had gone inside I had darted right over to it on my light paws. I hadn't eaten since yesterday and the sun was already starting to go down.

My paws were ready to spring into the dumpster when I heard loud footsteps behind me. Too loud to be a cat's, who were quiet. No, this was human footsteps, three of them.

I stopped and turned around, my ears pricked, slightly expecting more food. But instead it was teenagers, each holding a rock in their paw. To make matters worse, they were all staring at me as they surrounded me against the dumpster.

"Uh-" I said, and before I could even make another noise I felt a sharp pain, like fire, spread through my body as the black-haired human threw its rock into my flank. I yelped and pressed myself against the dumpster.

The next thing a knew I was a target for huge rocks and old soda cans and everything else the humans could get their evil paws on. They were hurting me, inflicting pain, because they knew I was smaller than them and couldn't do anything about it. Humans were the cause of all evil, really. Humans will take cats right from their mother and give them away to other humans to play with. Humans will scare cats away when they're trying to sleep. Humans will abuse cats because it makes them feel powerful.

I screamed as another sharp rock make contact with my shoulder, cutting it open before falling. Blood began to soak my pale fur around it.

Then one of them chucked a dirty soda can right where my wound was, forcing me to fall onto the ground in pain. It couldn't hurt any more than it did now, this suffering right before their greedy human eyes. An empty tuna can knocked me in the forehead, it's sharp edge slicing the area above my eye. The only thing I could see was scarlet as blood swarmed my vision. I let out another meek cry.

Just then I heard a human shout. One more rock slammed my tail until the throwing finally stopped. The humans were shouting and screaming, and I could sense the presence of another cat. It was hard to think, but I finally managed to match the scent with the name Flame. What was he doing? Ohh, what if they're abusing him now?

I shakily lifted a paw and painfully wiped some blood away from my eyes. I saw Flame darting between the humans' legs, snarling and biting. It was noticeable, the rips on the brown-haired human's shirt. Did Flame do that? For me?

Then another cat jumped out, Bat, I think. Or it was Stratus...

Suddenly the pain washed over me again and I watched everything go sickly black.

*****

Bat POV

I watched in utter disbelief as Flame threw himself at the teen with brown hair. He jumped incredibly high and sank his claws into the fabric of the boy's shirt. I wasn't sure if I should help or not, but when the boy shouted, slapped Flame off him, and sent him flying into the bricks, I couldn't help but thrust myself forward.

Larry had already passed out. His wounds looked bad, I noticed, with a scarlet shoulder soaked in blood and a bleeding wound above his eye. I really hope he survived, that looked painful.

I brought myself back to the real world as I zipped last Flame, successfully landing a scratch on the red-haired kid's leg, and stopped next to Larry. Every cat learned how to help wounds as a kit, I knew, and it was instinct. I carefully ran my tongue over his bleeding shoulder, wincing at the strong taste of blood, but continued cleaning it as the three boys finally yelped and took off like the idiots they are.

"Finally, they're gone! Those moldy pieces of rubbish," Flame swore. He turned. "Hey, Larry, you okay? Larry?" He caught sight of his limp body. "Oh no, is he dead?'

"No," I said between strokes. "He's alive. Help me clean away the dirt so it doesn't get infected."

Flame nodded and began working at Larry's forehead. "You know," he said. "Humans are jerks."

"No, duh."

"But not all of them. Some are nice, like the pizza man here. He lets us live here, you know? But some are bad, like those three idiots. The problem is there's more bad humans than good in this world." Flame spit out some blood. "Ew. They really hurt him."

I frowned, looking at Larry. I guess Flame's right. But I'll be mad at every human for a while about this.

"I hope those three trip, which they will, because humans are so big and clumsy, and then fall on their faces. In a sewage pipe. Full of rats."

"And hornets," I added.

Flame nodded approvingly. Then his yellow eyes hardened as he stared at Larry's wounds. "They're still bleeding," he said softly. "He's losing a lot of blood. It's already pooling around him." The red tom took a step back. "Bat, I don't think he's going to make it."

"Don't say that," I said, knowing Flame was right again.

"It's true, though... Look, I'm sad, too. But he's lost too much blood and he's barely breathing anymore..."

I pricked my ears as I heard footsteps. Human footsteps. "More humans!" I hissed to Flame. "Hide!"

My friend looked alarmed, then quickly scrabbled under the dumpster. I was right on his tail. We didn't make a single noise as two humans walked quietly into the alley. By their scent, I could tell it was two adults, one male, one female. They seemed calmer and less intent to hurt anything, though I couldn't count on it. You can never trust humans.

"Yes... Ms. Parkerson said she heard a lot of caterwauling, probably a cat or- oh, my." The female voice voice went higher in pitch at the end. They stopped and faced Larry, I'm assuming. At least, that's where their shoe's pointed. I couldn't exactly see their faces.

"I think it may be dead," the male voice said. Me and Flame went farther back as he crouched down to rest a hand on Larry's neck, avoiding the blood that had dribbled down. "Oh! Jasmine, it has a pulse. It's alive."

"He's alive. It seems like he might have been hit by a car, then dragged himself here? Oh, wait, there are sharp cans and rocks... Someone could have been hitting him."

"Animal abuse. The poor thing, nobody would want to go through that."

Flame and I shared a quick glance to say, They're on our side!

Should we come out? Flame asked with a gesture to the opening.

Humans aren't very safe. I said, flattening my ears. But they seem nice. Let's do it.

I went out first, being closer to the exit. The humans looked quietly surprised as I gingerly stepped around Larry to sit next to him. As Flame came out I made quick notes of what they looked like so I knew which humans to trust in the future.

The lady has blue eyes, light brown hair, and right now she's wearing a green shirt... Hold on, she's from the shelter. That's good. The man has black hair, brown eyes, and a beard, and is also from the shelter. What luck! Larry could survive after all!

"This could be the cat's friends," the lady suggested. She reached a paw into her pocket and held out something. I flinched at the sudden movement, but carefully leaned my head in anyway. It was some sort of cat treat, and I took it in my mouth. Not too bad, I guess. I've had better.

"We could always take those two back to the shelter with us," the lady said quietly to the man.

"Cats don't usually like that when they're fine. They seem pretty fit, so they're probably having a good life already. Being a stray is dangerous though, especially in a city, like we're in now," the man replied.

I took a step back. I personally like being a stray, and they can take Larry back to get better, but not me. Flame gave me a look that meant, I don't think so. You?

Nuh-uh, I replied.

We nodded and carefully began walking away.

"Well, there they go," the man said. "We can just take the injured one and nurse it. The carrier is in my van, can you go grab it?"

We turned the corner and sighed. "I suddenly feel very nauseated," Flame moaned.

I glared. "Well we just watched a cat get tortured by humans, bleed half his heart out, and left him for some other humans. Of course you'd feel nauseated!"

Flame sighed. "And we never even got our pizza."