[ti]Open[/ti]Distant Thunder

[LupTacco]

Oh. Oh. Oh damned hell no they absolutely did not.

Mangy little crowfood-hearted dirt-brained fox-pelted- Patchfrost forced his fury down, digging his claws into the grass to tide himself over until they could meet with flesh and fur. They hadn't noticed him yet- how 'useless' were his flowers now, huh, Thrushbelly? The tortie tom had half a mind to give the younger warrior a good scratch on his nose for daring to speak against his superior over something that was now proven to be tactically sound. Later, hotshot, he reminded himself, focusing his vicious gaze on the she-cat before him. Certain lily-livered cats allowed to dwell in MothClan might have run, slunk of for help- and they'd be too late to stop this. No, his approach was the only one here, even if the gleam of the sunlight on her false claws spoke of danger.

He took one agonizingly slow step after another to release himself from the bush in which he hid as quietly as he could, before gearing up to pounce. His body flattened like a viper, green eyes wide with narrow pupils, as he tensed his legs. Breath in.... breathe out.... and.... show time, like a coiled spring he launched himself at Honeyheart, his claws unsheathed as far as he could make them.

((You can powerplay what he does just a little, like deciding if he hits and where, and you can strike back at him a bit too, but nothing too extreme))

[ladyspectral]

Artemis and Viper jerked at the chirp, not quite a bird's but something else. Their heads turned toward Scorpio, Viper's body tensed and Artemis's eyes wide in fear and shock.

Honeyheart rose as she heard the chip, head turning to see a tom lunging for her. She quickly rolled onto her back, stumbling as if to feign shock. As the Mothclan tom landed, however, he would find sharp claws ripping across his chest and stomach, though she was unable to quite reach the tom's throat with her front legs. "Filthy clan rat!" She yowled out, rage evident in her voice and carrying across the fields with her rage.

The yowls of pain were what set Artemis off, the she cat charging towards the patrol not too far away with a shriek of her own. This was her family, she wasn't going to let a few mangy forest cats hurt them!

[noctemq]

Cherryhawk almost fell out of the tree at the sound of yowling and scuffling from the forest floor below. She has a terrible view from her current spot, so the only option was to jump down or continue down a more narrow branch, risking a terrible fall. She decided to quickly scramble down the tree, her claws out and adrenaline starting to flow. Her pelt stuck out like a neon target sign across the powdered forest floor, so she tried her best to keep towards the dead vegetation that was scattered around. Her heart felt like it was in her throat when she saw what was happening. Rogues!

With little hesitation, Cherryhawk broke away from cover and hurled herself towards the rogue group, targeting whichever cat was closest to her.

(No serious injuries please and thenk)

[LupTacco]

Patchfrost snarled, hissing through his teeth at the flare of pain in his stomach but not too distracted that he lost track of those artificial claws, rearing his head back just in time that they merely brushed the fur of his throat rather than slicing him open. "Just like a rogue mutt to fight dirty! Your own claws not good enough to fight with, dog-breath?" he spat, disengaging and keeping his posture low. No way was she getting another shot like that. His eyes were like green fire, wide with narrow pupils as the blood rushed in his ears. Moving side to side like a snake, and incidentally hissing like one too, he made swipes at Honeyheart from any direction he could, his claws fully extended and aiming to tear into her.

[ladyspectral]

Honeyheart's reflexes were sluggish from her overwork, and her body tired from her near sleepless nights plagued by nightmares. Her heavy limbs only seemed to grow heavier, until all the council member could do was swing her claws blindly for her enemy, and hope she could land a blow that would mean something. Blood began to gather under her body, the frantic she cat now thumping her back legs up in a rhythmic series of strikes.

But her struggle only lasted a few moments before she found herself too tired to continue, exhausted beyond anything she had felt before. The pain seemed to ebb, each additional strike only seeming to be a distant pain, the cold around her beginning to seep through her fur. If Patchfrost stopped his attack, the infamous ginger cat would never know it. The sensation had faded from her body, all she could feel is the cold.

Her heart thudded in her chest, roaring in her ears as she gasped, wheezing in the dirt. The sound of battle faded to nothing, and a flash of brown caught her attention. Her head turned, and she was met with the furious face of a green eyed tom, one she had tried so hard not to forget the lisping voice of. The one she couldn't spend her life with, a tom she had followed and trusted so easily.

His gaze never left hers, even as her vision began to blur and fade to white. His mouth moved, but no sound came out. She knew.

She had spun her own fate.

-----

Artemis paused, eyes widening in shock as she spotted the clan cat on top of her motionless, apparently lifeless mother. The calico's voice rung out above the sounds of battle, stunned grief and rage ringing out in her tone. "MOM!"

((Don't mind the hallucination, I didn't just powergame Snaketongue being there. She was just dying, does some crazy stuff to your brain.))

[Fireflake]

Scorpio also threw himself at his mother's attacker. Didn't this stupid clan cat know who she was? Of course, but it didn't care. It wanted to take her down. Well, Artemis and he would fix that. Scorpio sank his claws into the tom's fur only briefly before the clanner pulled away. It all happened much too fast, the desperate struggle with too many cats in it. The rogues were determined but they were tired and without the benefit of structured battle training.

He shook in anger at the clanner's talk about his mother and leader. It was this shaking that ultimately held off his attack and forced him to do no more than watch as the cat's claws dragged through the ginger she-cat. He felt himself jostled away from that fight, pulled maybe by another cat's claws or by shock or fate itself. He peered through the cats in front of him. What was she doing? That was hardly a fight!

Vulture had broken eye contact with Honeyheart as soon as she was attacked and took the opportunity to stalk toward the cat in the tree. He braced himself in a crouch as she started to sprint toward them. It's like a mouse running right into my paws! It was all about posturing and intimidation as she drew closer. Lashing tail, flattened ears, teeth showing, the usual. Then as she got closer still, he began to growl loudly and narrowed his blue eyes into a glare. The tom pounced at the last moment and unsheathed his short claws as he sent out a sharp jab.

"Mama!" Scorpio plowed through the other cats, shouldering them out of the way with no regard for whether they were friend or foe, or his own sister. His paws grasped for his mother's neck, slipping on the blood, trying to find the wound and hold it shut-- but there wasn't just one!-- trying to make sure she was still breathing. He held his own breath as he searched for a sign that she was going to be alright. He was just a scout. This wasn't what he was trained to find.

Vulture broke away from the fight as he heard two agonized yowls, one from a tom he knew to be quite withdrawn usually. Obviously something important had happened. And 'Mom', 'Mama'? Who here was a mother except Split and-? Vulture leapt away from the clan cat and stared at the scene in front of him. He waited for Honeyheart to jump up from her successful feign and land a killing blow, but she didn't. He blinked a few times, hoping the familiar look would go away. Wasn't that... death?

Scorpio shook his head as he felt the blood beneath him trickle down as if refusing to gush.

"No, no, Mother... get up. You have to watch me catch you something. You have to eat," he meowed softly. "Viper, help me here!"

[LupTacco]

Patchfrost danced and whirled away as more rogues closed in, young and frantic- her children? Ah. It was easy to forget that in the end, nobody really won when wars waged. As two cats closed in around the rogue leader's body, he backed into the grass before running towards the rest of his clanmates with a rallying call. "One of you, get to the camp and inform Eveningblaze and Brackenstar- their leader has fallen. I don't care who goes, just do it!," he snapped, the creeping burn of fresh pain radiating from his scarred stomach; with the rush of adrenaline gone, there was nothing to dull the sensation now, and if the rogues attacked again they'd need backup. He was hopeful that their grief would keep them all occupied- except that, where did that one go? His eyes traced the treeline, connecting dots in a haze. Had someone gone up there?

Standing as straight as he could, he remained alert in case anyone else appeared or the rogues went on the offensive again. He didn't feel like fighting more today, but if he must, he must. His muscles burned but he could go a few more- he could certainly last until reinforcements arrived.

[noctemq]

Cherryhawk skidded to a halt at Patchfrost’s words. Just as quickly as the action started, it had stopped. Her claws were still out as she looked at the patrol group and back to Patchfrost for confirmation on his order. With a nod to the tom, she disengaged and took off as fast as she could. The rush that Cherryhawk felt as she mentally prepared herself to fight instead went to her paws as she darted back to camp. She swerved here and there to hopefully to make her tracks confusing to read if anyone chose to follow.

Cherryhawk cautiously slowed down a few rabbit lengths away from the Mothclan camp, far enough where the rocky clearing wouldn’t be obvious. She circled around herself to make sure no one was following for sure. It would be catastrophic if the rogues found out where the camp was, and she already had a close call in the past. Recently, she felt like the bearer of outside news to Eveningblaze and Bramblestar, and the words held in her mouth would only enforce this.

[Fireflake]

Vulture turned back to the she-cat from the tree as she ran to deliver the tortoiseshell's message, but he only took one more step before deciding not to chase. He straightened and stared with a cold glare at Patchfrost. Did this mean it was time to retreat? And who decided that now? Hornet was the only other cat with that authority. The only one now. Well, he had authority over his own actions. He leaned back into the shadows for a few moments before slinking out of them. "One of our leaders," he corrected. The rogue group shouldn't look weak, but this was one gaping weakness.

Scorpio slid his paws away from Honeyheart's neck wound to another on her flank and stared at the stains it made in her fur. Red. Not her fur's red. Blood red. He pressed and tried to close the wound, and tried to lick away the blood, but he knew in the back of his mind that it was too late. It was leaking, trickling; no longer gushing. It hadn't gushed since before he got there. The rogue pulled his paws away as he finally seemed to realize they weren't doing anything. Scorpio's voice came more like an echo than his own. "She's dead."

His claws unsheathed. His tail lashed. His ears flattened. His lip curled back to reveal his gritted teeth. But, unlike Vulture's show, none of this was fake. Rage and grief filled his eyes and set his fur, which always stuck up due to some mutation, on its very ends. Finally it boiled over. He threw himself at Patchfrost with a low, guttural sound that somewhat resembled, "Die!"
It wasn't just talk to surprise the clanner. If something or someone didn't stop him quickly, he may just fall alongside his mother trying to kill Patchfrost.

[LupTacco]

How long were they going to take? The rogues still weren't leaving, and now he was one cat short until they brought someone- really, anyone- back. A growl started up in his throat as he watched the remaining intruders mill about, one in particular catching his eye with a pale green gaze. Just go and mourn already you lot, he tried to convey his unwillingness to kill the rest of them in his eyes, but it didn't seem to work. The fiery red and white tom that had stared him down had charged and leapt at him, almost quicker than he could register. Patchfrost reared back, hissing at the new flare of pain in his wounds, but managing to avoid having his face torn apart by Scorpio, though his ears caught the brunt of it and earned several new nicks.

"Get out of the forest!" he yowled, his controlled fury escaping and eking back into his mind, the cold fire in his eyes returning. "Do you want her death to mean nothing?" his voice lowered to a growl so only Scorpio could hear; he didn't know who this tom was, but his reaction was all he needed to know that they must have been family or at least extremely close. Keeping as light on his paws as he could, Patchfrost remained ready to leap away, though the urge to give the young rogue a few good scars in return was getting stronger.