Glitch in the System/Prologue

''Calm down, Glitchfang. We're just going to SkyClan to warn them about them encroaching into our territory. Totally normal occurrence. It's not like I've been warned by Blazepelt that SkyClan is full of super hot cats or anything. ''Glitchfang told herself as she led her patrol to SkyClan camp. She kept her jaws parted for scents, and the rich, heady woodland smell of SkyClan's territory was overwhelming, a far cry from the cool, sharp scent of pine of ShadowClan territory that she was used to.

Suddenly, the scent of cat wafted towards her in the wind. Glitchfang raised her tail and let her fur lift. "SkyClan patrol inbound," she hissed. "Proceed cautiously."

Her patrol nodded as Glitchfang tread lightly, taking her band of cats farther into SkyClan territory, hoping to slip by the SkyClan patrol. But alas, her bad luck struck again. She heard the rustle of leaf litter a second too late and before Glitchfang could turn around, she felt a cat's weight strike her back and bring her crashing down onto the ground. The sounds of fighting cats erupted across the territory as the SkyClan patrol attacked.

Glitchfang reacted quickly and twisted her body so that she could flip the cat on her back over, but the cat was ready. They leaped away and landed lightly on their feet a tail-length's away and scoffed. "Is that the best you can do?" they said in an impossibly deep voice that sent shivers down Glitchfang's spine.

Glitchfang got up and glared at the cat, who was a tom that was just ethereally handsome, no doubts about it. But she willed herself not to concentrate on the aesthetics part of her enemy and focused on what he had just done - knock her into the ground and straight up gave her a backache that would torture her for days. "You haven't seen a sliver of my power," she spat at the tom and leaped at him, twisting in the air at the last second and slamming her paws into his spine.

The tom struggled to get up. "Not bad," he choked out as Glitchfang pinned him down and pressed a paw at his throat. "Now can you state your business on SkyClan territory?"

"Leader's orders," Glitchfang thundered. "Songstar's words himself. And don't you DARE try to charm me out of letting you go!" she added as she saw the tom look at her and smirk.

"I don't need to charm myself out of here," the tom drawled, his voice still sounding incredible to Glitchfang's ears despite literally being choked by her paw. "Look up, sweetheart." he finished in mock tenderness.

Glitchfang was internally screaming at the fact that a tom just called her THAT but she looked up anyways and screeched for real as she saw a cat drop down from the trees. She rolled away in time and the handsome tom sprang onto his feet. As Glitchfang scanned the battlefield, she saw her cats injured and bleeding, their eyes pleading her to call a retreat.

"You have ten seconds before I kill you," the tom snarled, unsheathing his claws eagerly.

Glitchfang gritted her teeth. She wouldn't let herself get away with this, but she called the retreat anyways and ran off, feeling incredibly salty that a SkyClan tom had beaten her and caught her unawares. She should've have been so stupid and let herself be distracted by his absurdly good looks! I'm going to kill Blazepelt for telling me about hot SkyClan cats, she thought angrily to herself as she reached the end of SkyClan's border, into the outskirts of ShadowClan territory. Glitchfang, you're such a mess.

---

The tom sat back on his haunches and smirked as he saw the ShadowClan cats flee. Such cowards, he thought, then reflected back on his battle with that snarky old she-cat. ''That one had substance, though. Perhaps I shall keep a look on her. ''It was his last thought before he got up and walked back to camp to report to Noblestar.