"Hey, Forest, wake up!"

        I am awoken by a high-pitched screech that keeps yelling at me to wake up. My eyes snap open, just to see a small, light gray tabby cat with amused, light blue eyes come into sight.

        "Look who finally decided to wake up!" Rain exclaims. "That took about twenty times of shouting your name."

        "Shouting?" I reply, still fuzzy with sleep. "More like yowling at the top of your lungs."

        "Well, it still took that long to wake you up, sleepyhead! Everyone else is already outside, so I'd recommend you get out right now to join them." With that, Rain dashes out.

I completely forgot that I'm still in this stupid tunnel. Not only that, but I also still didn't remember to clean myself from all of that dirt. Groaning, I trudge out of the tunnel, trying to tolerate it as best as I can. Yet, the dark murkiness still makes me uneasy. It makes me want to vomit.

         The dull gray sky looms above me once again. I sit next to the other rebels in the long grass.

         Rain paces back and forth in front of us. "Okay, guys!" she shouts. "We're going to stay here today, in case those Superiors decide to come back with their full force. I'm guessing they will so they can try to avenge that white cat's death."

        Many cats murmur in agreement. I scratch my ear with my back paw.

"Where's Ash?" one of the cats behind me meows.

Rain pauses from walking around to scan the area with her ears tilted back. I do the same, glancing around me for any signs of the tall black cat. There is no sign of him anywhere.

Rain makes a careless gesture with her tail. "I have no idea where he is. We all know him. He's too secretive to tell us about his whereabouts." She sighs and continues to pace, looking deep in thought. "He probably went to go tell other rebels in our group to spread the word about the meeting that's happening tonight, but that's just a guess."

"Meeting?" I mutter. Apparently, I'm not the only one who is confused or surprised, because many other cats are murmuring in puzzlement.

"We will all be meeting right next to the Southern Tunnel tonight to talk about how to finally fight back against the Superior side," Rain explains. "Ash and I have decided that we have been holding back for too long. Our rebel group is large enough to stand a chance against those losers, so we will be discussing battle plans. Let's hope that no invading Superior cats will try to come today."

Rain walks toward the tunnel. "I have to check on the others. I'll be crossing over to the Western Tunnel if you need me!" she calls as she gracefully jumps in the hole.

       The rest of my day is mostly uneventful. Fortunately, no one from the Superior side makes an appearance. Ash is still nowhere to be seen, and Rain does not show up for the rest of the day, either. I spend the day quietly guarding the Southern Tunnel with some other rebel cats. My mind drifts from problem to problem. What if Mirage and Ice are coming for me? What will be our plan to defeat the Superior side? And somewhere in the middle of the day, I begin thinking about Mirage, how she's doing without me and-

        Wait. I purr out loud with amusement. She probably forgot about me by now, other than the fact about how I disappeared. I'm sure that Mirage hated me, maybe secretly relieved that I'm gone from her sight.

        Such an independent, hot-headed cat with an attitude. That silly, old nickname, Little Miss Badass, still fits her perfectly. I have to admit that I miss her a little. As much as I want to, I can't hide that.

~~~~~~~~

        Nighttime has finally come. The moon shines down on us, bathing the ground and every single cat in a silver light.

        There are way more cats than I expected there to be, at least fifty of them around me. There are about as many cats as the amount in the Earth cat camp where I came from. Rain is right that this is the largest rebel group around.

        A yowl for attention rings out, and everyone stops their chatting right away to see who is calling out to us. I push myself to the front of the crowd to get a clear view of what is going on.

        Rain is standing in the clearing. She shouts, "Everyone, come closer!"

        All of the cats quickly form a circle around Rain. I stay where I am, still being close to her.

        "That's better," Rain meows in a quieter tone. There is a twinkle in her eyes. "Everyone's here, is that right?"

        Many around me meow in agreement.

        I look up right when a tall, black tom brushes past me and steps into the circle. "Yes, I believe that everyone is here," he growls.

        The blood in me goes cold for a split second, and all of my muscles stiffen. But I relax when he glances back, and his eyes are a warm amber, not ice blue. Why did I just mistake Ash for Ice?

"Check for any spies that may be lurking around," Rain orders with a lash of her tail.

Ash wordlessly nods and slowly stalks around the edge of the circle, tasting the air with slightly opened jaws.

While Ash is doing that, Rain begins to speak to everyone. "As you may know, we are going to discuss a battle plan that we will use to attack the Superior side, in order that we can win equality for everyone, whether you have extraordinary powers or if you are just a regular, everyday cat." Rain observes all of us as she speaks, occasionally turning to face every single rebel. Ash continues to search for unfamiliar smells or unfamiliar senses of power or unfamiliar cats or unfamiliar whatever-he's-looking-for. I shake my head in confusion. He really is a secretive cat.

Rain continues, "Does anybody have any ideas? I was thinking of attacking all of the Earth cat camps to defeat anyone who actually decides to be with the Superiors and stealing more cats who can fight for equality, and-" She pauses. "Ash, is there something wrong? You have been standing there frozen for quite a while now."

Ash is standing in front of me. His gaze is somewhere in the distance, his expression looking extremely focused. Everyone turns to look at him. "I am sensing a strange amount of power," he growls slowly, his body still frozen. Then, very slowly, his eyes land straight on me.

        No, I must be mistaken. He can't be looking at me. That's impossible. But his stare bores straight into my eyes, straight into my soul.

One at a time, shock strikes me, then confusion, then denial. He has to be wrong. I'm just a regular Earth cat.

"What?" I ask quietly. I can barely hear my voice above all of the noise the other rebels are making now. They probably now think that I'm some sort of Superior spy.

However, Ash turns his head behind him towards the others and shouts, "Silence!" The volume and harshness of his voice makes me jump, and I lash my tail as everyone stops talking immediately.

Ash swivels back to look at me. "Never mind," he growls, loud enough for everyone to hear. "I apologize. That was a miscalculation." He stares at me for one last moment until finally breaking eye contact to move on. The strange thing is that his eyes haven't changed; they still look extremely focused and observant.

Everyone seems to have relaxed, although some are still suspiciously glancing in my direction. Rain is looking at Ash very oddly. Her ears are tilted downwards, and her head is tilted.

"Uh, we accept your apology, Ash," Rain meows slowly, her voice with a tint of confusion in it. And suddenly, everything is back to normal. "So anyway, back to the point of this conversation. Any ideas about a battle plan?"

"Your idea sounded good before," one voice calls out from behind Rain.

"The one about attacking all of the Earth cat camps and stealing more Earth cats?"

"Yes."

"Okay. That's a good start. The only problem is that we don't have enough cats to attack all of the camps at the same time. If we just do them one at a time, then the Superiors can band up against us and attack before we're even halfway. The largest amount we can do is two at a time, but even that might be stretching it. There are many Earth cats in each camp."

A cat who is standing next to me meows, "How about we first attack the camps with the Superior leaders in them? Ice leads Camp 6, and I believe that Moonlight leads Camp 3."

        Rain nods.

        Another cat near me replies, "But that might make the Superior cats revolt even more. Those are their leaders. Besides, the Earth cats might even decide to join in because they respect them for that."

        "Oh, please," someone else scoffs. "the Earth cats don't know about their ranking. For safety, to avoid having them find out that he's an actual leader of Gardinia, Ice makes them call him Name. Those poor cats at Camp 6 don't even know Ice's actual name."

        More cats spit out answers with their thoughts, and I lose focus of this entire situation. I'd rather sleep than just continue sitting here listening to this boring conversation. I can barely even fight- why do I have to help create a battle plan?

Wait. My mind drifts off to a few days ago, when Rain told me that this is just one rebel group. If that's so, then how many rebel groups are there?

"Hey, everyone!" I loudly meow, trying to get attention. However, all of the cats keep arguing.

I try again, this time raising my voice even more. "Everyone, I have something to say! Can you all just be quiet for a second?"

No one is listening to me. Everyone keeps causing chaos with their noisy growling and hissing.

Finally, I lose my patience. I take a step forward and screech as loud as I can, "Hey, birdheads, stop fighting and listen to me!"

Most of the rebels turn silent and turn to me with an annoyed expression in their eyes. Their tails are fiercely lashing, and there is still some quiet hissing in the distance.

"Sorry if I sound stupid. I'm new here. But there is more than one group of rebels, right? How many?"

Many rebels warily glance at each other before looking back at me. "Five," they answer at different times.

"Okay." I pause briefly to recollect my thoughts. "So can't we band together with all of the other groups so we stand a better chance against them?"

Meows of disbelief and confusion rise around me. One cat next to me hisses, "We can't- that's impossible! There's a reason we stay separate, and that's because everyone wants to deal with the Superiors a different way. The others are idiots, and that's why we stay away from them."

There are murmurs of agreement, and my heart sinks. I had no idea that there is opposition in our own side.

I meow, "But how can we expect to win against the Superiors if everyone is disagreeing on what to do with them?"

But my voice isn't heard again by many, since everyone starts to argue with each other again. Before the entire meeting falls into chaos, though, Rain yowls for silence. Everyone listens.

"Actually, Forest may have a point. He might be addressing something that is highly debatable, but Ash and I will have to decide on what to do." Rain nods at the black cat, and he silently comes forward to stand at her side. She continues, "You are all dismissed. Thanks for coming! You may travel back to where you came from and guard your appropriate tunnel. We will do fighting training tomorrow."

        With that, all of the rebels separate into different directions. I guess it's time to go back to the disgusting tunnel so I can sleep. With a yawn, I wait in the back of a line to go into the tunnel.

        When I'm the last cat who's about to enter, I happen to take a quick glance behind me. Rain's gaze is wandering around the field, but Ash is staring at me. He doesn't look away when my eyes fall on him, just observantly watches me from a seated, oddly motionless posture.

        I spin around and blurt, "Ash, just out of curiosity, is there a reason why you keep giving me odd looks?" At the last second, I realize how rude that sounds, so shortly after that, I try to correct myself by meowing, "Sorry, I didn't exactly mean it that way, but-"

        "I was lying when I was saying that it was a miscalculation," Ash interrupts. His stare is sending chills down my spine. "You are different than the others."

        His answer stuns me to silence. What? Even Rain is looking at him as if he has just lost his mind.

        I'm not sure how to respond to this, so I decide to just leave. I slowly back away and catch myself at the final second as I almost fall backwards into the hole. Turning around and tightly shutting my eyes closed, I crawl back into the ugly tunnel.