Prologue
Rewritten July 25, 2017
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It was a horrid night on the planet of Gardinia.
If it weren't for the fighting, the blood, the screaming, maybe the night would have been peaceful. For once, the temperature was cool instead of freezing cold. The mice and rabbits that were preparing for their slumber were silent. But perhaps the only reason they barely even moved was because they were watching the cats fight each other.
As the few stars twinkled in the indigo sky above, countless cats, the only inhabitants of Gardinia other than their prey, were shedding blood on the tall grass and the soil beneath. The whole battlefield reeked of chaos; the battle cries echoed throughout the land, loud enough to make a bystander go insane from the rambunctious, nonstop noise. But, of course, not a single cat was able to sit back and watch the fight. Everyone was a part of this war.
At best, it was tough to tell between the two sides of the battle. Half of the cats involved were normal. Most of their sizes and fighting techniques were average. However, many of the cats fighting them were quite extraordinary.
Those cats were much bigger and taller than average, and their claws were longer and sharper. Some spat fire at their smaller opponents as they fought. Others suddenly sprouted wings and exploded up to the Gardinian night sky, only to come crashing down on the average cat seconds later.
But the normal-looking cats didn't look frightened by their opponents. Instead, as they were the ones who started the fight, they came prepared for the battle. And they prepared well. Not only did they have amazing dodging skills, which made it tough to be hit by a fireball or a cat with wings, but some of the extraordinary cats were fighting those of their own kind. They were fighting on the normal cats' side, which was the sole reason why it was so hard to figure out who was with whom.
Smack in the middle of the battlefield, a big, white cat with black ears, paws, and tail was lashing out at a smaller gray tabby. Although the white cat seemed to be one of the extraordinary cats, she wasn't using a power to defend herself. But even though there was no magic involved, their fighting was close to being the fiercest in the whole field.
As the gray tabby struck her claws on her opponent's nose, her blue eyes sparkled with a dark ferocity. The white cat reeled back from the impact of the hit, and the gray tabby taunted, "Come on, are you too scared to release your power? You know you have the strongest one here."
The white cat's mouth formed a sneer as blood ran down her nose. Ignoring the sharp pain of the wound, she pounced at the gray tabby, knocking her over. "You idiot, why would I waste my power on you and your stupid rebels?"
Before the white cat could pin her down, the small, blue-eyed cat slipped from her opponent's claws and attempted to tackle her, but the white cat dodged to the right just in time. The white cat slammed the gray tabby's side hard with her paw, and she fell over with a screech.
As the gray cat coughed and tried to get back up, the larger cat pinned her down with and cried, "Long live the Superiors! They will always rule Gardinia, no matter what you and your weak rebels try, Rainfall." She spat out the gray cat's name as if it was a foul taste in her mouth and then raked a claw down her side.
"Fool!" Rainfall hissed, squinting her eyes. "Look around you, Mirage. Your teammates don't seem to be having an easy time defeating my cats."
And as Mirage, the white cat, warily scanned the battlefield with her eyes, she realized that Rainfall could be right. Of course, she didn't want to admit it, though, so she stayed silent as a ginger tabby screeched after someone broke her wings and another cat ran out of fire to lash out at a clever rebel cat.
But Mirage's gaze caught a tiger. It wasn't an actual tiger, she thought. A Superior cat, a powerful one, was able to morph to it. What made Mirage stare at it, though, was that the tiger was horribly weakened. Three Superior cats were attacking it, leaping on it, and dodging every attempt the tiger made to fight back.
The tiger appeared to be trying to morph into something else by the faint orange aura surrounding it, probably back to his original form so he can flee. After all, he was outnumbered. But whatever he was trying to do, it obviously failed after his body turned to a puny, dark brown mouse.
"Tornado, no!" Mirage yowled, jumping off of Rainfall to save him.
But it was too late. Another white cat had gotten to Tornado first. He bit the mouse on the neck, ignoring his futile squeaks and thrashing.
All three of Tornado's former opponents were triumphantly purring as they backed up, letting Mirage bolt to the mouse. An orange aura surrounded him again, this time a strong one. A second later, Tornado was in his original form- a dead dark brown tabby with wide-open, lifeless forest green eyes and scarlet blood oozing out of his throat.
Mirage came to a halt and simply stood over Tornado's body, staring into his eyes. She was motionless, so still that she didn't even bat an eye when she realized that Rainfall was standing behind her. "Let me guess- you two were in a romantic relationship."
Mirage's silence verified Rainfall's statement. She was still standing completely motionless, not even acknowledging her enemy's presence.
Rainfall purred, "Well then, I was completely right to tell those three to target Tornado. He was an essential part of the Superior side, and you, out of all cats, were his mate."
Suddenly, Mirage whirled around to face the smaller gray tabby cat. Every muscle of hers was tightened, and her voice dropped to a low, dangerous tone. "That's it. You will die for this, Rainfall. I promise you that in a short amount of time, every minion of yours will fall to the ground worshipping the Superior cats. And I swear..." Her voice burst to a scream as she yowled, "I will be the last cat you will see before you die a slow, painful death!"
Surprisingly, Rainfall didn't even flinch at Mirage's threats. Her tail just remained waving high in the air as she pridefully scoffed, "Try me." She backed up and went down into a battle crouch, peering up at Mirage with sly, blue eyes.
But Rainfall didn't need to prepare for battle. Mirage had spun around and was running off into the crowd of fighting cats, leaving Rainfall and Tornado behind. "Coward!" Rainfall's piercing shout shot through the battlefield.
But Mirage wasn't listening to her anymore. She was racing through the countless fights and dead bodies, tripping over cats and pushing others. Her determined, brown gaze was searching for a certain cat.
Finally, she found who she was looking for. A battered, silver tabby had just forced a cat to flee. Before the sleek-furred cat rushed to attack someone else, Mirage called out, "Moonlight!"
Moonlight turned around to see Mirage bowing her head to her. "What is it, Mirage?" she briskly asked.
"We are going to lose this battle unless I release my power."
"What?" Moonlight shook her head. "Are you crazy? I get that many Superior cats are dying, but-"
Mirage's tail furiously lashed as she interrupted, "No, I'm not crazy! Tornado just died, and I'm sure that Rainfall has an elaborate plan here. Seriously, Moonlight, wake up! We're going to lose if I don't release it. I'll just be in a coma for a day or two, but I'll be fine afterward. I promise!"
Moonlight's whiskers trembled. She glanced away at the battle behind her. "Tornado died?" she whispered.
Mirage just nodded. Her eyes held no emotion in them when Moonlight turned to her.
Finally, Moonlight sighed. "Fine," she wearily meowed. "As one of the leaders of Gardinia, I have to let you do this. I know you will be weak after you release your power, but you're the only chance we have to retreat safely without any more Superiors dying." She gazed into the taller white cat's eyes. Her final two words came out as a whisper. "Go ahead."
Wordlessly, Mirage nodded again and walked away. On her way to the middle of the field, some average-sized cats tried to tackle her. If she were actually still focused on fighting the battle and not ending it, Mirage would have fought back. But contrary to her usual blood-hungry ways, she ignored their feeble attempts, shook out her fur, and kept walking towards the very middle of the battlefield.
As Mirage arrived to where she wanted to use her power, she heard Moonlight's high-pitched yowl. "All Superior cats who are still alive, retreat at once! Now!"
Mirage wasn't focusing on the Superior cats' confused reactions to Moonlight's announcement. She closed her eyes and raised her head to the indigo sky as she started to murmur a series of words that no one but herself could hear. As she opened her eyes to stare at a single star in the sky, she felt a familiar fire deep in her chest that descended down to her paws. Instead of the usual brown, her eyes glowed amber. Soon enough, they were glowing so much that her pupils disappeared and the whites of her eyes were not to be seen, either.
Meanwhile, Rainfall caught what Mirage was doing just as flames started to spread from her paws. "Everyone," she screeched as she frantically bursted up from her seated position, "get out of here. Mirage is going to make everything in this area explode!"
A fierce rumble sounded in Rainfall's ears. And suddenly, pure catastrophe happened. Cats from everywhere yowled in absolute fear. Rainfall gritted her teeth and turned tail, running for her life as the world around her started to collapse.
And the battle of the Superior cats and the rebels ended just as quickly and chaotically as it began.
All that remained of the battlefield was a huge, gaping hole with cat body parts lying inside and a white cat with black ears, paws, and tail collapsed unconscious by the damage, miraculously unharmed other than her comatose state.
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It was the morning after the battle. Moonlight sat in the tall grass in the shade of an ancient, lone tree. An old black tom was sitting next to her, facing the tree. A deep scar was on his back, and his left ear was ripped. He paid no attention to his wounds, though, and he stared up into the cloudless, blue-gray sky.
"Ice," Moonlight murmured. "What are we going to do? We barely got out of the battle last night. If we don't come up with a plan to defeat them, the rebels will overrule us, and the average cats will have the same rights as us. Why should the Superior cats be equal to them? I mean, we were born with powers for a reason.." She stopped talking for a moment. "Ice, do you have any idea what to do? Why are you staring at that tree? I know trees are rare in Gardinia, but.."
Moonlight's voice dragged off as she stared at the black cat, waiting for him to finally say something. Ice's gaze had moved from the sky to the tree in front of him. He seemed to be deep in thought, so deep that it was possible that he didn't even pay attention to Moonlight's nervous chatter.
Finally, Ice growled in his low voice, "I will use my power to teleport to planet Earth and take its cats to join our side against the rebels. We will be stronger with more cats."
"Wait," Moonlight interjected, "are you going to force them to do it? I'm not sure if they will listen."
"They will have to listen, or they will die in our paws. We have no time to be emotional in order to convince them to help us. I recall attempting to do that once, and it ended badly. I will not let them go against us anymore. They will help us stay in power over Gardinia, and that is final."
Moonlight took in what Ice said. "Fine," she sighed. "Do what you want. I trust you, Ice."
"Very well, then," Ice stated, standing up. "I will set up camps for them, and we shall start training them to fight against the rebels. I assume you will want to be a leader of a camp as well, am I correct?"
"Of course. After all, we are both leaders of the whole planet." Moonlight stood up and met Ice's gaze.
That was when the invasions on Earth's cats started.
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