The Cat Clan: PROTECTERS

Chapter One

The twenty-foot long snake hissed as it slithered across the floor.

Cheetah shuddered. As Warrior, this was her job. But she (and Indiana Jones) hated snakes.

"Why does it have to be snakes?" she complained, eyeing the snake cautiously. "Why couldn't it be- bunnies or something? Bunnies are nice! Or penguins? Everyone loves penguins!"

"Stop blathering and do your part," hissed Leopard. "We don't like snakes either, you know. Just morph and it will be over in a second.
"Yeah well you're not Warrior!" Cheetah grimaced but stopped complaining. She screwed her face up, tight, then relaxed it. She flashed black, then quick as thought, there was an actual cheetah on the ground, circling the snake. It pulled back its lips in a grimace or perhaps a smile, then pounced.

Cheetah's claws, long sharp and deadly, slit the head off the snake. It transformed into a human, and Cheetah, still a cat, still circling, winced.

"Argh I hate that sight," Lynx sympathized with her. "Dead human is just so- ew. Snakes: whatever. Humans: that's who we're supposed to be protecting!"

"Not all humans, Lynx. Not all. Remember that." Leopard's voice rang in the empty room for a second. Cheetah was still pacing. "Cheetah, you got anything?"

The flash of black came back again, and wind whistled through to fill the space where a cheetah once was. A tall, lithe girl was standing just a few feet away. She had black gladiator sandals, black ripped skinny jeans, a black muscle tank that (paired with a black lace bralet) managed to do it's duty and reveal the girl's powerful muscles. She stared at Leopard with strangely golden eyes, outlined in cat-eye eyeliner. Her black hair flew everywhere as she looked straight at Leopard. Then, finally, she spoke.

"I can't find anything useful. No ID, no nothing. Lynx, you see anything? You're the Seeker." Lynx, a girl wearing a oversized black sweatshirt, grey skinny jeans, and grey combat boots, with lighter brown hair (this time sleek, shiny, and brushed) piled on her head in two knots spoke.

"You know that's not my speciality. I see things that aren't in front of me, not things that are. And mainly, I see my Quarry." Her dark brown eyes bored into Cheetah's like Cheetah's had to Leopard's. Her sparkly grey eyeshadow twinkled in the setting sun- beautiful, but nobody payed attention.

"Should we search him, Leopard, or should I burn him?" Cheetah and Lynx looked at their leader. She was attired in leopard-print skinny jeans, brown gladiators, and a brown tank. Her hair was dark like Cheetah's, curly like Cheetah's, her eyes just like Cheetah's, but one could never mistake them for sisters. There was a poise about Leopard that was not about Cheetah. Cheetah was brute strength.

"Burn him," she decided. "He's not of any use to us. Not anymore.

"Lynx, send a message to Jaguar. We're meeting at the hotel. I want to know how her mission went." Leopard flashed into a cat, followed by Lynx (gone in a streak of grey afterwards), then Cheetah.

"Cheetahs are the fast ones. I don't get how she's Seeker," Cheetah grumbled.

"You're still fast, Cheetah. Faster than a car! But she's faster than sound," reassured Leopard. "That's her gift. Your is your strength, and your fire. Which, by the way, we were going to burn him."

"Ohhhhh right. Sorry, I forgot!" Cheetah's golden-brown eyes glowed orange as she stared at the man. His clothing went started to smoke, then he was an inferno. Cheetah disappeared under an invisibility spell, but "We won't miss you creepy snake man!" lingered after her as she started to run. Soon, they were miles away and the abandoned New York warehouse was ash.