One Step Too Far
is a CatDog one-shot fanfic by MelissaEM.
For years Cat has been the butt of the Greasers and their mistreatment. But one day, he simply asks why they are constantly chasing him and his brother. Cat learns a dark truth about life, but will he use this truth to become more than what his enemies think he is?
One Step Aheadcontains the following examples:
- Adaptational Jerkass: The Greasers were already cruel delinquents in canon, but in this story, their motives for beating up Catdog are revealed to be ‘’incredibly’’ petty: Cliff sees the two as genetic freaks whom he feels entitled to pick on.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Cat empathetically asks the Greasers why they pick on him, which kickstarts the story.
- Big Brother Instinct: Cat goes berserk when the Greasers go out of their way to make poor Dog miserable. This gives him the courage to stand up to Cliff.
- Fantastic Racism: Cliff all but admits he thinks Catdog are grotesque freaks whom he feels entitled to pick on.
- Hard Truth Aesop: Some people don’t have a “good” reason to be awful. Some people are just awful for shits and giggles, and you have to use physical force to get them to back off.
- Kick the Dog: Quite literally, in Cliff’s case, who brings poor Dog to tears by bullying him and explicitly calling him a freak of nature whose birth parents probably went out of their way to abandon him?
