The round, full moon blazed down through the thick leafy canopy. Rain patterned against the dark leaves and slid down in rivulets onto three cats seated in a circle.
The first cat, a golden and white tom, covered his head with a paw.
"Why did you pick here?" He grumbled.
A white she-cat with misty blue eyes frowned. "You know perfectly well why, Corncandy!" She snapped.
Corncandy flexed his claws and glared at the she-cat.
"Stop it!" The third cat, a bright ginger tom, stepped between them and shoved them back. The white she-cat started, as if surprised that a tom would ever dare to touch her.
The ginger tom noticed her shocked expression and facepawed. "Harden up, Snowballthrow."
Snowballthrow widened her glistening eyes and the tom rolled his. "Don't play soft with me, Snow."
"Get to the point, Starburstfur!" Corncandy snapped.
Starburstfur nodded seriously. "I have recieved news that a Mary Sue has infiltrated the Clans." Snowballthrow and Corncandy gasped.
Starburstfur inclined his head mournfully. "Yes. We have been chosen to pick the saviour." He swirled his paw and an image appeared in the air. His companions studied it.
"That's who you've chosen?" Snowballthrow demanded.
Corncandy flicked his tail and the image vanished. "Yep. You gotta problem with my choice?"
Snowballthrow shook her head violently. "No!"
"Good."
Credits to ScipioPB for the names.
Meet the Mary Sue
Snow tumbled through the naked branches of the nursery and dumped itself onto a silvery and white mottled kit. The kit shot awake at the icy feeling of melting snow on her perfect pelt and shook it off. Her ruffled fur immediately smoothed back down into place and she grinned.
Her light green eyes sparkled like emeralds as she left the den and padded into the camp. Rays of dawn sunlight glittered on snowy tree branches and hurt her eyes. The she-kit turned away from the brilliance and licked a paw.
"Heads up, Sleetkit!"
The she-kit glanced up just in time to see a ball of hard packed snow come sailing through the air and smack her in the face. She rubbed off the crumbling remains just in time to see a smoky coloured kit roll around on the ground laughing.
"Floodkit!" Sleetkit whined, collapsing to the ground in tears. "Why do you always have to be such a big meanie?"
Floodkit padded up to his sister in confusion. "Geez, sis, why can't you play right?"
"Floodkit!" The siblings' mother, Windbreeze, stalked up to them. "What have I told you about bullying your innocent, perfect, lovely sister?"
Floodkit gagged at the descriptions. "But mom..."
"'But' nothing!" Windbreeze snapped, cuddling the sobbing Sleetkit in her paws. "You do not aim snowballs at your sister, do you get me young tom?"
"Yes mom." Floodkit ducked his head.
Sleetkit smiled through her tears. Good! This should teach that big meanie a lesson! She padded after her mother to the opposite side of camp, far away from her evil brother.
"Sleetkit!" Mistpool, the youngest of the queens, meowed enthusiastically. "I saw everything! Are you okay?"
Sleetkit nodded as the oldest queen, Swiftriver, began to converse with her mother.
"...how can you handle a kit like that?" Swiftriver was saying to Windbreeze. "If I had a kit like that I'd disown him!"
That sounds extreme, Sleetkit thought to herself as Mistpool checked her pelt for injuries.
"What is she doing here?" A lanky black she-kit prowled up to the chattering queens and pointed rudely at Sleetkit. She plopped onto the wet snow and scowled.
Swiftriver paused her conversation with Windbreeze to answer the kit. "She was being bullied by that awful brother of her's, darling."
The black kit nodded, sneering. Sleetkit hated her, she was the only cat in camp who rivalled Sleetkit's charms or beauty.
"Play nicely now, Novakit." Swiftriver meowed as the black kit grinned at Sleetkit.
Sleetkit gulped. Not her! She might stain my flawless personality!
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Tainting
As soon as her mother had resumed chatting with the other queens, Novakit padded over to Sleetkit. Passing her, the older kitten sneered at the former.
Sleetkit smiled sweetly. Maybe my goodness will reform her.
The aforementioned kit gingerly sat down beside her, wincing as her fur brushed Sleetkit's. Sleetkit's smile widened. It's not her fault she's not as amazing and perfect as me.
Novakit seemed to sense this thought and ground a pawful of gritty slush into her nemesis' face. There was a pattering of paws and a tomkit with creamy fur skidded to a halt beside them.
"...Novakit..." He panted, sides heaving. "Jinglestar is gonna perform our 'paws ceremony!"
Novakit grinned, this time apparently genuine. "Awesome! C'mon, let's go inform Yarrowkit!"
Sleetkit watched the siblings run off to tell their brother. I knew it would work. She's already more positive.
"Let all cats gather beneath the Ivystones for an important Clan meeting!"
The silver protagonist shifted so that she could hear the MoonClan leader speak. Technically kits weren't allowed to attend Clan meetings, but she was an exception because of her awesomeness.
"Novakit, Minkkit, and Yarrowkit have all reached their sixth moon and are ready to become apprentices."
Minkkit gazed up at Jinglestar with undisguised awe and Sleetkit felt envy warm her blood. Oh no! Novakit tainted me!
"Novakit, from this day forth until you have received your warrior name, you shall be known as Novapaw. Zebrastripe, you have courage and determination and I expect you to pass these qualities onto your new apprentice."
Sleetkit felt a bristly pelt brush her's. Black fur flashed in the corner of her eye.
"I don't know why Jinglestar isn't giving you your ceremony right now." A silky voice meowed. Sleetkit spun to face the speaker.
Poisonpaw gazed down at the kit through dark green eyes. "Since you're so amazing, you deserve it."
The silver kit purred with delight. She loved to have cats recognize how awesome she was.
"...Yarrowpaw. Angelheart, as my loyal deputy, you will mentor Yarrowpaw..."
Yarrowpaw lapped roughly at his dark ginger fur before awkwardly touching noses with Angelheart. The already named apprentices sat off to the side with their mentors and cheered. Sleetkit cheered too because she was so nice and not in the least jealous of them becoming 'paws earlier.
When the Clan finished calling out their names, Sleetkit padded back to the nursery and ducked inside. She could feel Floodkit's angry gaze burning into her pelt but she paid it no heed. He's just a big meanie anyway.
With those reassuring thoughts swirling around in her mind, the kit curled up to nap.
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Confusion
Floodkit hated the glares that seared into his pelt as he padded to the freshkill pile. He knew where they stemmed from, unlike what most of the Clan thought, he actually had a working brain.
"'Floodkit! Why aren't you as perfect as your sister?'" He mimicked nastily under his breath as he pawed a scrawny mouse off the tiny pile of prey. Naturally, prey was scarce in the leafbare moons, but there was no need for the Clan to give all the prey to Sleetkit.
"Perfect, my flank," he muttered, listening to his sister crunch loudly through a half frozen sparrow.
A cat slammed into him from behind and the dark grey tom stumbled face first into the prey. Harsh laughter echoed above his head as he lifted his face out of the stiff furry bodies of prey.
Three mottled faces loomed into view, one silver, one brown, and one white. Floodkit groaned, you know life sucks when the younger litters even pick on you.
Bellkit, the silver tom, stepped forward. He was Sleetkit's top admirer and the head bully of the Pick-on-Floodkit club. Bellkit raised a paw and slipped out his shiny, unused claws.
Floodkit was about to surrender to the usual routine: bullies come, you give prey, they give you a warning scratch and leave when he felt teeth bite his scruff. He felt his paws leave the ground and squirmed uneasily.
"Easy, kit." A rough voice muttered, the words muffled by fur.
Lemme down! Lemme down! Floodkit struggled and squeezed his eyes shut. After an endless time of being jolted and carried he felt his paws touch solid ground.
The musky scent of an underground cave touched his nose and he opened his eyes warily.
"He's awake!" An unfamiliar voice cheered and Floodkit found himself staring at a cream tabby apprentice. The smell of SolarClan clung to her fuzzy fur.
"W-where am I?" He croaked.
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Anti-Sue Society
"So, let me get this straight," Floodkit meowed, sinking slightly into the material of the large, blue, lumpy boulder thing he was lying on. "This is like a Clan that is focused on the management of these murky-snow-creatures that you keep referring to?"
"Mary Sue, not Murky Snow," corrected the SolarClan tabby, who Floodkit had come to discover was called Dawningpaw. "And that is right."
"What is a 'Mary Sue'?"
Dawningpaw shuffled her paws awkwardly as the tom who had brought Floodkit here handed the latter a dark brown, squarish, hard thing that had a musky odour. Floodkit stared at the thing in his paws. "What is it?"
The tom sighed. "It's called a 'book'. Lift the corner of it like this," he hooked a claw under the cover and flipped it open, "and study the image by your left paw."
Floodkit did so. The image was a shiny photo of a purplish she-cat with large rainbow eyes. Under her image was a messy line of scratches that ended in a scarlet x.
"That is a Mary Sue." Dawningpaw stated. She squinted at the scratches. "This one in particular was our first case. Stargleam, she was called."
Floodkit felt sick. "Stargleam? Who in the name of Silverpelt would be named that?"
"A Mary Sue." Dawningpaw meowed as if that explained everything.
Floodkit closed the book quickly. "And how does this relate to me? Why am I here?"
"Well, our organization, known as the Anti-Sue Society or ASS, has been dedicated to the extermination of Mary Sues and their lesser-known male counterparts, Gary Stus. It was originally founded by a tom who was sick of his Mary Sue sister brainwashing their Clan." Dawningpaw panted, tired from her lecture.
"But why am I here?" Floodkit asked again.
"We have received news of a Mary Sue in your Clan. Closer analyzation proved it to be your sister. Tornadostrike, " she gestured at the tom, "decided to recruit you to our cause." She whisked a sticklike, shiny thing into his paws and pointed at a blank page in the book. "Now, are you in or not?"
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Dawn Patrol
I would like to thank JaggedWing, Petalsplash, Smileyorangekitty, Reedflight22, Secret, CrystalStar of LightClan, Comettail76, Winter's a Everlasting Dream, and ExplosionsAreFun for their wonderful reviews so far!
I'd also like to thank IslaTheIcePrincess for her review and brilliant commentary.
Sleetpaw was awakened from sleep by the scarred face of her mentor, Prettyprincesspaws, leaning over her. The silver apprentice scrambled to her paws and watched appraisingly as her pelt slicked into place. Over the three moons since she had become an apprentice, her beautifying powers had upped greatly.
"Wait in the clearing," she told her mentor. "I'll be out soon."
Prettyprincesspaws nodded and slipped out of the den. As soon as her tail vanished from sight, Sleetpaw turned to her denmates. The senior apprentices; Poisonpaw, Lynxpaw and Sunsetpaw had recieved their warrior ceremonies a fortnight before, being sure to abandon their former denmates as soon as possible.
A loud snore jerked her attention to the nest beside her's. With fur tangled and drool hanging off his limp tongue, Floodpaw twitched in his sleep and released another deafening snore.
Slightly disgusted at her brother but too kind to mention it to him, Sleetpaw spun and padded out of the den. Drops of melting slush slid off the den roof and splashed to the ground around her paws. She sidestepped them and joined her mentor by the entrance.
"Let's go." Sleetpaw stepped into the entrance tunnel only to have a brown striped tail halt her path.
"We gotta wait for Sunsetclaw first, Blackboard's fetching him." Prettyprincesspaws meowed. "Here they come now."
Sleetpaw spun to see the young ginger and brown tom stumble out of the warriors' den, Blackboard right behind him. Prettyprincesspaws signalled for them to come over and join the dawn patrol and Blackboard nodded, nudging Sunsetclaw with his nose.
"Dad!" Sleetpaw called. "Can you hurry up? I want to patrol the SolarClan border before sunrise!"
Blackboard nodded wearily and growled at Sunsetclaw, who was shuffling his paws in an attempt to procrastinate. "Sleetie wants to patrol, so hurry up!"
Sleetpaw smiled. I'm so lucky to have such a lovely father.
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Skirmish
A/N: Sorry for the late update, I had a lot of school work.
Trailing grey willow branches swept across the trickling creek that wound along the border. A branch brushed her nose and Prettyprincesspaws, who was leading the patrol, involuntarily sneezed. Sleetpaw ducked, politely disgusted at the idea of germs touching her amazing fur.
Prettyprincesspaws sniffed and cast a half glare at her apprentice, which the latter didn't notice as she gazed at her reflection in the shining creek water.
Suddenly Sleetpaw felt something dripping onto her neck and glanced up into the snarling face of a brown tabby tom with dark amber eyes and a shredded ear. His teeth were bared and slimy drool slipped between the former and splattered onto her muzzle. Sleetpaw shivered in disgust and closed her eyes.
"Since you apparently don't have much intelligence, I will forgive you for drooling on my perfect fur."
The tom shook his head and gazed at her in disbelief. "Are you kiddin' me?"
Prettyprincesspaws pulled her paw from a cream apprentice's jaws and looked at the tom evenly. "Let my apprentice alone, Hammerclaw."
The tabby tom, Hammerclaw, flexed his claws. "Only if you let my apprentice alone."
The cream cat that was pinning Prettyprincesspaws smirked and gave the MoonClan warrior a nip on her right ear. Hammerclaw growled slightly, warning the apprentice to let her up. When the cream she-cat refused, Hammerclaw snarled at her.
"I am your superior, so get off her, now."
The apprentice sulkily stepped off Prettyprincesspaws, casting a hate filled glare at Sleetpaw as she did so. The silver furred cat was puzzled as to why a cat hated her. I'm awesome, right?