Axelstrike, Chainstripe, Brickstorm, and Boltpaw walked quietly through the alleys of the City, patrolling the borders of AlleyClan. Axelstrike had been given control of the patrol, as Brickstorm had to focus on training Boltpaw and Chainstripe could never stay calm when faced with CityClan cats.

Per usual, when they reached the end of one of the alleys, they encountered a CityClan patrol. The group of brown tabbies stepped forward to meet them. There was a small she-cat, about the same size as her apprentice, a large, bulky tom, and a tom with white patches.

Axelstrike took the lead, as did the brown and white patched tom from the CityClan patrol. "Clawface, we meet again. I trust that none of you were about to step over the boundary?" The tom, Clawface, scowled.

"Don't patronize me, Axelstrike. We don't want to be over there, you don't want us over there," he replied bitterly. Boltpaw winked at the female apprentice, who looked outraged and confused, ears pinned to her head.

"Slashpaw can come over any time she wants," Brickstorm's apprentice mewed suggestively. The large tabby tom stepped forward, as if he wanted to lunge for Boltpaw.

The small she-cat stepped in front of him, stopping him from attacking. He was practically foaming at the mouth as he turned to Brickstorm. "Watch your apprentice's tongue, Brickstorm! I won't have her corrupting my daughter! We don't accept that here!"

Brickstorm sneered at the tom, clearly happy to rile him up. "Or what, Strongjaw? Here in AlleyClan, cats can like whomever they want. Are you ready to declare war over your outdated beliefs?" The small she-cat shoved Strongjaw back again, preventing him from attacking.

"Of course you're unwilling to stop this unnatural behavior! What more could I expect from a ginger?" Strongjaw spat. The she-cat moved to shove him again, but he turned on her, hissing. "Don't touch me again, Bulletfang! I don't even know why you're out here! You should have learned your place and found a mate, so you could finally be in the nursery where you belong!"

Chainstripe stepped forward, seething with fury. "That's enough, Strongjaw! Get out of here, or I will tell all of the clans that you attacked me at the next Gathering!" The tom opened his mouth to retort, but Clawface snapped something unintelligible at him. Strongjaw, fuming, whirled around and strode off. The rest of the patrol followed, although Slashpaw glanced back at Boltpaw one more time before leaving.

The AlleyClan patrol turned around as well, and headed back towards camp. Brickstorm shook his head, although he had a smile on his face. "You sure do love to start fights, don't you?" he asked Boltpaw. She grinned up at him, proud. He knew her so well.

"That, and I love the confused look on Slashpaw's face every time I flirt with her," she mewed. At that, Axelstrike let out a frustrated sigh, and whirled around to look at the two of them.

Boltpaw shrunk back as he approached. Axelstrike rarely showed any sort of anger. It was disconcerting. "Both of you need to stop antagonizing CityClan. I know that you hate them, each for your own different reasons, but I will take you off of border patrols if this continues".

Chainstripe fell back beside Brickstorm and Boltpaw, who had gone quiet. "Don't feel bad. He's just all about protocol," the ginger tom assured them, with a glance at Axelstrike.

The patrol returned back to the camp without speaking further. The camp was well suited to their purposes, situated in a back alley with a way to get onto the roof. The alley had many crates tilted onto their sides, providing shelter, as well as a fence stopping humans from entering. There was a door leading into one of the human buildings, but it was rusted, and practically never used.

Sparkpaw and Spikepaw bounded up to Chainstripe, their father, excitedly talking over each other. Chainstripe chuckled, and flicked his tail for them to calm down. "One at a time, we can't understand you" he told them.

"Steelfire and Razorclaw took Spikepaw and Crashpaw on a training session, and they mentioned that we may be doing another group battle!" Sparkpaw exclaimed. Boltpaw stepped forward, immediately intrigued.

"What are the teams?" Boltpaw asked, curious. Spikepaw turned to her, his fur on his head in its distinctive, spiky mohawk.

"I don't know all of it, but I know that you and Crashpaw are the team captains!" the young tom chirped. Brickstorm rested his tail proudly on Boltpaw's shoulder, as the apprentices chatted about the upcoming battle.

Meanwhile, on the other side of camp, Bladefur was arguing with Sharpfang, as Puddlepaw watched on. The tabby tom was puffed up, unaware that his daughter was there.

"You're teaching Puddlepaw all wrong! Coddling her isn't going to do anything for her!" he hissed angrily. He stepped closer to Sharpfang, who wasn't backing down. "What if she turns out like Steelfire, liking she-cats, with a fierce, angry mate?"

Sharpfang hit his face with her paw, but kept her claws sheathed. "Better than turning out like you!" she spat. Puddlepaw hung her head, staring at her paws.

Daggertail, her mentor, padded up to her and ushered her away. "Come on, Puddlepaw. Let's go play a game. Arrowface and Steelfire promised to join. Dieselfoot and Scarnose are going to be there too".

Puddlepaw followed the ginger tom away from her parents. They reached the group of cats, and began to play a game of hide and seek. Scarnose was chosen to look first, since she couldn't sniff out the other cats.

Daggertail helped Puddlepaw squeeze into a small spot behind the crates that they slept in, then ran off to go hide in the unused basement where they stored their food, as well as the medicine cat's supplies.

Arrowface happily bounded over to a cardboard box that was laying upside down. He lifted it up, slipped under, then set it back down. He acted like an apprentice sometimes, so he got really into games.

Dieselfoot watched as Steelfire hid under a pile of old newspapers, then decided to pad off in search of a hiding spot. He eventually just laid down in one of the darker dens, and the game proceeded.

Finally, the hunting patrol returned, made up of Lockheart, Blazewhisker, Razorclaw, and Crashpaw. The group dropped their prey off in the basement, and although they spotted Arrowface hiding behind the prey pile, they didn't say anything.

Eventually, the clan went to sleep. All except Bonepool, who was scheduled to be the night guard. She took over for Flintpelt, who gratefully went to sleep after guarding the camp all day. Halfway through the night, with the crescent moon shining down below, the first in a long string of problems began.

Bonepool noticed a cat get up, from their crate, and start walking towards another one. "What's wrong? Are you okay?" she called. The cat sighed, then padded over to the black and white she-cat.

"If you hadn't seen me, things would have turned out fine for you. This wouldn't have happened. I would have killed my real target, then been done," they told her, with a shake of their head. Bonepool opened her muzzle to let out a warning cry, but with one swift swipe, the murderer cut her throat with their claws. Bonepool fell to the ground, struggling to breath as she choked on blood. The murderer padded away.

Meanwhile, while they distracted Bonepool, their partner snuck past and made their way over to Boltpaw's crate. Bonepool's daughter drowsily opened her eyes, and stared into those of her would-be murderer.

"What's happening? Is CityClan attacking?" she murmured. The cat shook their head, and flexed their claws.

"No, I am," they replied. They slammed Boltpaw back against the crate, then sliced their claws down her stomach. Then they quickly slunk back to their den, and left her to die.

The medicine cat apprentice was listening to this entire conversation, terrified. They hadn't seen the murderer, and they couldn't recognize the murderer's voice (the murderer had purposefully shook their voice the entire conversation), but they knew they could help Boltpaw.

Quickly, they ran to the basement, got herbs, cobwebs, and anything else that they might need, then ran back to Boltpaw. As the she-cat wheezed and struggled, they bound her wound, placed a poultice on it, then waited by her side the rest of the night. Eventually, the bleeding stopped. Boltpaw would be okay.

They returned to their den as cats began waking up, fearful that the murderer would discover them. Blazewhisker was the first cat to wake up.

She stretched, left her crate, then immediately spotted Bonepool's dead body. She left out a cry, full of fury and despair, which woke the rest of the clan up.

Lockheart saw his mate on the ground, and collapsed next to her. "Who did this? Who?!" he yowled. Boltpaw weakly coughed from her crate, and soon the rest of the clan noticed that she had been attacked.

"His mate and his daughter? Whoever did this has a vendetta," Axelstrike growled. He padded up to Boltpaw, who looked at him, not speaking. "Did you see who it was?"

Boltpaw shook her head. Then she croaked, "I know two things. One, the cat had orange fur somewhere on their body. I saw it. Two — the cat was from AlleyClan" Cries of outrage filled the camp, and demands that they exile the cats with orange fur.

Spikepaw stepped forward, and let out an angry squeak. "We can't do that! Are we CityClan? Do we discriminate against cats because of their fur color? No! We need trials!"

"Trials! Put two cats on trial! One for Boltpaw, and one for Bonepool!" Lockheart yowled. The cats agreed wholeheartedly.

Bladefur pushed his way to the front, trying to make himself seem relevant. "Chainstripe! I accuse Chainstripe! You can't trust an outsider, former or not!" Sharpfang scoffed at his outburst. She really hated him.

"Well, if we're going by fur color . . . Sparkpaw, maybe? I don't know who to accuse, but her den is near Boltpaw's, so she could easily sneak out to kill Boltpaw without anyone noticing," Puddlepaw squeaked.

"Let's vote, then," Razorclaw mewed somberly. And so they began.

Murdered: Bonepool, Boltpaw
Healed: Boltpaw
Accused: Chainstripe, Sparkpaw
Revealed: No one
Revived: No one