A Meeting [ALL REGIME MEMBERS NEEDED]

EXPOSE HIM NIGHT EX POSE HIM

Loaf clambered up to his paws once Shade's attention was diverted. He spat on the ground, blood dripping from his maw as he stared warily at the former clan cat. How pathetic; he was using empty threats. No cat in their right mind would eat another. Silently, he was proud of Night, for telling him off. Not fearing the possible death that was to come. A part of him wanted to defend the rogue if it came to do that, but the stinging sensation of his own wounds told him otherwise.

The intruder's sudden action caused Chase to tense up. In a flash, Night was the one pinned down instead, and Loaf was free. Ignoring the badly wounded Regime leader, the fluffy she-cat watched the intruder with a heightened sense of wariness. He was clearly different from the other rogues; she could see it in his movements. He was an incredibly skilled fighter, not someone who could be beaten easily. Her previous experiences battling with clan cats ran through her head at the scene before her. However... her lips drew back, revealing her teeth in a slight smirk. "You're awfully arrogant, aren't you?" She asked. Her tone was light, but her eyes revealed her hostility. "No matter how skilled of a fighter, you are, there's no way you would be able to take on every one of us and win." Standing, she met his gaze calmly. Whatever happened to Night didn't concern her, but Shade's comment had been just the thing to step on her tail. "So you're a psychopath? Great, that's just what we need here." The sarcasm was practically dripping off her words.

(OOC: Okay, I have no idea how to win them over. XD)

Shade narrowed his eyes furiously, then let the rogue he held down back up. Tail lashing, he struggled to find a new way to force his way into their community. ”...What if I were to teach you to fight? It’s quite clear your leader isn’t strong enough to command any of you, especially if you have no respect for him, nor if you care whether he lives or dies. He won’t be able to help you at all. But I could.” He kept it to himself that he highly doubted that after all the violence and insanity he had rather foolishly displayed, they probably still wouldn’t listen to him. But he still had to try. ”I was able to defeat your leader easily. If I were to train you, you’d be able to take on Clan warriors, let alone measly rogues or loners. You could do whatever you wanted.

“Don’t you want more than all of this?” He gestured with his tail to the dark, musty surroundings that was the filthy Twoleg alley. ”Don’t you want to live in the forest, where there is more prey, more space, more protection? If you fought like Clan cats, you could actually stand a chance against them. You could get anything you wanted. Sure, it would take a bit of violence and death, but at least you wouldn’t be just surviving. You would be living, because you would have everything a cat would need to thrive.

“I may have Clan blood in my veins, but that doesn’t mean I am a Clan cat,” he continued. ”I hate those cats with every hair on my pelt, and nothing would give me more pleasure than to teach them that being different doesn’t mean you can’t live the same way they can. We’re all cats, aren’t we? Yet they’re too vain and full of themselves to care about anyone else other than themselves. That being said, I have real reason to help you. Of course, if you want to continue living here and risk starving to death or dying slowly and painfully by infection or illness, be my guest. But if I were you, I wouldn’t pass up this opportunity to become strong enough to fight for a better life.”

Something inside of Night listened intently to Shade's words, the young loner who lived alone for countless moons. The young tom that tried to hold onto certain cats to end the loneliness, only to have said cat torn away. The tom that backed from Shade's paws tried to silence that cat, tried to kill him. He wouldn't die. Night gave up trying to get rid of that young tom. He felt an itch for the better life Shade spoke of, one he could not scratch on his own. Should he tell him? Should he tell everyone about him? No, it's too dangerous. Honestly, he was afraid to put his opinion in on Shade. He'll just wait and go with the flow.

Seeing as there were cats who agreed, Night padded over to the two. "I agree. We can't fight a clan just yet. If we know how the clan cats fight, we can eventually learn to counter them. There's no benefit to holding grudges against former clan cats. They have the same hatred of the clans and we could use the numbers." he said calmly, his gaze soft.

As much as it irked her to admit it, the intruder's suggestion was rather appealing. Chase's paws seemed frozen to the ground after he had finished speaking. Here was a cat that they knew next to nothing about, apart from the fact that he was a former clan cat and possibly insane. It seemed ludicrous that they were even listening to a cat who had just moments ago claimed to eat them. However, there was a semblance of truth in his words. While she had been doubtful of it before, Loaf's incompetence now made it even clearer. At the state they were in now, driving out the clans was nothing but a pipe dream. She was only here because she had nowhere else to be. Loaf was all but forgotten to her now. She was hardly aware of the ginger tom in the background. Living. She would like that. Her feathery tail twitched from side to side, revealing her uncertainty.

When An stepped forward, Chase shot her a half-scornful look. Somehow she wasn't surprised that the she-cat would be the first to accept Shade. Berry and Night were quick to follow in her pawsteps. Everything about the unfamiliar tom reeked of suspicion. However, if being on his side meant that they had a chance for a better future, it was understandable. After all, she would do the same. Snorting softly, she strode over to join the other three cats with Shade. "So you know how to make a good bargain. Don't you think that would've been a better first choice of action than threatening to kill us?"

Shade’s eyes glimmered with satisfaction as the cats agreed to his offers one by one. At Chase’s question, his ear twitched. ”I suppose I should apologize, but it’s hardly my fault, but the fault of the Clan I was originally raised in. They have so many restrictions and they love to squander the true potential of cats. It’s like not eating for a moon, but once you eat a mouse you just have to eat more and more until you feel utterly sick. It’s the same with fighting instincts. Those Clans may be territorial, but they’re also soft, and they give up and grant mercy far too soon. That’s something you all can use to your advantage.”