Paradigm Shift

Yumiko Kaze

What the lizards hadn't destroyed in their attack the night before they were stealing now. They hadn't even noticed the three young cats hiding amongst the shadows.

Why would they? What cat in their right mind would be trying to sneak into the city now?

Lion-O, Cheetara, and Tygra had been unwilling to leave without first giving their King a proper burial. Finding his body hadn't been hard. Tygra had been afraid that the lizards would mutilate it or take it with them for some sadistic sort of desecration, but Claudus' body lay where it had fallen.

Once small grace among a thousand different horrors.

Buildings were destroyed, many of them now nothing more than rubble. Thunderians and lizards alike had been slain in the streets and even more unfortunate ones had been crushed by the falling stone and mortar. Tygra tried not to look at the tiny hand that he could see peeking out from one smoking pile.

After completing the burial customs of their people, the three had split up to see if they could find anything of use before they left. Tygra didn't even bother using his invisibility. The lizards weren't expecting to find anyone living amongst the ruins and in his experience, people only seeing what they wanted to see was the best camouflage of all.

Like Grune.

Tygra's fists tightened at the thought of the cat who had been his mentor. He had idolized the warrior for as long as he could remember and, to his delight, Grune had seemed to favor him over Lion-O. Even knowing that Tygra could never be King, Grune had always pushed him to do his best, to never hold back. Now, Tygra realized, everything Grune had ever done or said seemed to reek of his inevitable betrayal.

What can't be earned can always be taken.

Hadn't that been Grune's favorite piece of wisdom? He'd repeated it to Tygra often enough during training sessions. The soldier had always joked about wanting to be King, but no one had ever taken him seriously.

Tygra would never admit to anyone how often Grune's words had resounded in his head as he grew up. Now, Tygra had the terrifying feeling that Grune may have been grooming him all those years, trying to get Tygra to betray his family when Grune finally staged his coup against Thundera. The words Grune had said to him so often had sunk in, but not quite in the way the general intended.

Despite knowing that the King and Queen loved him as much as they did Lion-O, Tygra had spent his entire life feeling like he had to earn a place in Claudus' heart. While he knew he could never be King because he wasn't Claudus' blood heir, he had known, with crystal clarity, he could show everyone that he was just as worthy. He had to, or else how could he justify the charmed life he had lived?

Tygra shuddered. Grune's words may not have worked on him the way the warrior had intended, but they had still shaped how Tygra had approached the world for much of his life. He had the sudden urge to jump in the river and scrub himself until he bled. He felt violated to the depths of his soul and he doubted the dirty feeling would ever leave him.

He shook himself a bit as he sifted through a pile of rubble, as much to clear his thoughts as to get the dust out of his fur. He had no idea where he was supposed to look. The lizards had already raided most of the good stuff anyway. Hopefully Cheeta and Lion-O would have better luck finding food items and travel gear.

His hears perked up at the sounds of some nearby lizards. Stealthily, he crept along the pile of rubble that was currently concealing him and peeked around it.

There were three of them. Two were poking and prodding a different pile of debris and the third was standing nearby with some sort of device. He pointed it at the debris and waited while the machine… did something. After a moment, it beeped and he directed his comrades to a different area to search. They did as they were told and after a scant few minutes of digging, they were rewarded with a cache of coins and jewelry.

Tygra's eyes narrowed. Whatever that thing was, it was telling them where to find things. He eyed the pile of money shrewdly. They could sure use that on the road. The question was, how was Tygra going to get it? There were three of them and only one of him. He eyed the pistol he had picked up in last night's battle and was rudely reminded of something Grune had said much more recently.

How can you defeat technology if you don't even understand it?

He snarled a little and gripped the gun. It had been a good point, he hated to admit. Tygra didn't want Grune in his head any more than he wanted to acknowledge that maybe he'd been wrong to make fun of Lion-O all those years for his interest in technology. However, he was nothing if not practical, and after last night's events Tygra was unwilling to let himself be so proud as to shun something that could be useful. Especially if he could take Grune down with it later. It would be a sort of poetic justice.

With three precise shots, the lizards lay still on the ground. Tygra smirked a bit and bounded over to their bodies. He noted that they seemed only stunned and not dead. Eyeing the pistol, he wondered if there was a way to increase the amount of power it used. Stunning was fine for now, but he was no fool. There might be a need to kill at a later date.

He hurriedly gathered the money in a bag and then nudged one of the lizards with his foot. Where did they get all of this stuff anyway? Curious, he knelt by the nearest lizard and inspected the creature's armor. The material must be pretty lightweight if the lizards could use it. They were notoriously weak physical fighters, for the most part; and stupid too, from what he'd been told. If lizards were using it, he shouldn't have a problem at all. He had always been a fast learner, and the pieces of tech he had run across so far proved to be extremely easy to use.

Waste not, want not.

Tygra stripped the three lizards quickly; hoping desperately that they wouldn't wake up or that someone would come along and see what he was doing. He carried his loot a ways away to a semi-protected area, a pavilion that hadn't caved in, and took the time to inspect it there.

The body suits were made of a strange stretchy material. The lizards had been of varying height and build, but the suits were all the same size. Tygra cocked his head. Would it fit him?

After a few moments of embarrassing hopping and twisting, Tygra managed to get the body suit on. Several more minutes and he'd loaded himself down with the astoundingly lightweight armor and several weapons he'd taken from the lizards. He knew from the attack the night before that the silver canisters could be thrown and a smokescreen that blinded and choked all present would appear. The belt they were stored on also had a convenient place for his pistol and a spot for his beloved bolo whip.

If someone had told him yesterday that he would be loading himself down with technological weaponry, Tygra would have laughed in their face. Until yesterday technology had been nothing but a fairy-tale and one of Lion-O's flighty dreams.

Now it was everyone's nightmare.

It had been years since anything had truly frightened Tygra, and he wasn't about to start now. It was an ancient Thunderian saying that one only feared what one did not understand.

Tygra would not allow technology to scare him. He might not understand how it worked right now, but he was sure as hell going to learn. He would learn all he could, and he would put it to good use.

AN: Because we never did get to see how the hell this happened. This is my explanation. Review please!