[MauR] Wet Feet [Grus!Cat x Athene!Cat][FIN]

[Blue Eyed Melloon]

Inside the Brenna household, everyone was sitting down for dinner. The food was being set on to the table, and Kaylee took her spot next to an empty chair. Two days ago, a text message sent to her dad's phone said that Castille was staying at a friend's house to finish up a big project. So they weren't the least bit worried about their oldest daughter as they began to eat. Outside, a red and white cat with black markings on it's feet stood staring into the window. The gold star on it's forehead flickered once in the light, and then it was gone. Grus wandered down the street with a little sadness. She didn't want to lie to her family, but how could she explain that she had been turned into a cat while patrolling the city as a senshi?

She padded onto the main road, weaving in and out of people's feet while they hardly noticed the stubby tailed feline. It had been snowing, but now it had turned to rain that fell thickly. She shook, and blinked a couple times as her whiskers drooped. Time to find shelter.

Her shelter turned out to be in the park, where a set of tree roots had decided to grow upward before diving back into the earth. This meant that there was plenty of room underneath the tree itself for a small red kitty to crawl into. She sighed, flopping onto the ground. While she loved being a cat, the part about not having a home was a real bummer.  

[litian]

Athene was miserable. The bronze and white kitty with dark ears with a short stub-like tail and jade and black back socks had not been happy to suddenly find himself a cat. In fact it was accurate to say that he had been horrified.

He hadn't been able to get home – Athene doubted that he'd have made it up all those stairs and the lift was kind of a problem for someone who was now bothvery short and lacked opposable thumbs.

Food had been a problem too – raw meat was out of the question and cat food? Ew lets not go there. Athene might be stuck in four paws form but he was not going to go there – ever!

In the end the dark-eared kitty had settled for nibbling a bit at the crusts of someone's discarded sandwich, tummy rumbling at the delicious smells he could smell on the air.

The rain falling down had been the final straw – the cap to what had been a miserable day.

Somehow in his quest to find somewhere out of the drenching rain, Athene had found his way to the park. An opening set of tree roots had seemed a good place – big enough for a small kitty to squeeze oneself under the tree in a bid for shelter – but after doing exactly that that, Athene realised that another cat had had exactly the same idea.

“Would you mind sharing?” There was a slight tone of pleading to the words spoken to the red and white cat. “At least until the rains stops. Just it's miserable out there.” Okay maybe he was a little crazy trying to talk to a cat, but hey he was desperate here – Athene really didn't want to have to try and find another place to shelter whilst the rain was still coming down.  

[Blue Eyed Melloon]

She was dozing off, listening to the rain pitter patter above when it got darker in her cave. Her blue eyes flashed open and she tensed, smelling another cat. That was another strange part about being cat; she could smell so much better. It was distracting at best, and sometimes overwhelming.

Who knew people stunk so much?

Her cat vision distinguished the body of a cat, though his markings weren't too visible. He also didn't feel Nagaverse-y, so she nodded and tried to smile a cat smile. Since her mouth naturally turned upwards, it wasn't hard. "Unless your a bad guy, my tree roots are your tree roots." She scooted sideways, body squishing against the wall to allow room for the other cat.

"SO, I see you are in the same predicament as me." She remarked after re-settling. "Either that or your a cat all the time? I'm Grus.""  

[litian]

“Thank you” Athene told the red and white cat gratefully as she moved over, taking the opportunity to settle into the space left over. “And I'd like to think of myself as an okay person,” that in response to the 'bad guy comment. “Well at least I was a person until just recently.”

The name Grus seemed vaguely familiar, although the dark-eared cat couldn't quite place from where. “Pleased to meet you and thank you again for sharing your shelter.” Athene believed in giving 'thank yous' where they were due and saving him from miserable weather was something that in his book definitely qualified.  

[Blue Eyed Melloon]

The red and white feline nodded, saying "I was too. I think a lot of the cats running around were once people." She wasn't sure whether to ask if this cat used to be a senshi. Grus still wasn't completely sure that the spell or power blast or whatever it was only affected powered up individuals. So far, those were all she had met. And in her night travels, she had seen one or two senshi running around totally unaffected, which confused her further. Maybe they were the ones that were powered up at the time?

She nodded at his thanks, feeling the air around the two wet cats start to thicken and warm. Fur was a wonderful thing.

The thoughts buzzed around her head annoyingly, and she pushed them away by saying "So, I've given you my name Mr. Green Kitty, but I don't know yours." The question was implied, and maybe if she heard his name she could figure out just where on the Destiny City spectrum he belonged.  

[litian]

“Oh I've forgotten my manners” Athene replied in answer Grus' query about his name, his voice sounding flustered as he added “I'm Athene.”

For moment the dark-eared cat was silent, then something the red and white cat had mentioned earlier struck him. “Wait did you say that there's more cats running around?” He added as clarification. “Of the non-cat variety?” The words were spoken in a startled tone, Grus' revelation having surprised Athene – currently the other cat was the only other non-cat like himself that he'd come across.  

[Blue Eyed Melloon]

Athene......Athene.....where had she heard of Athene.....

It was the green that triggered her memory. Athene! The long haired boy that she had fought in Polaris's Duels of Destiny! Her eyes flashed. "Oh! I know you! We fought eachother...well not really fought. But we were against eachother for Polaris's duel game!' She had completely forgotten about those. Anything involving her being a human seemed so far away. It was hard to imagine herself walking on two legs...she kept getting distracted by birds and such.

The rain increased its tempo, clicking and clattering on the roots above. The tiny room held, and was now comfortably warm from the two cats body heat.

Her mind went back to his questions and she nodded. "Yeah there are a few more running around that I've met. I'm not sure if it's just...our kind. I haven't met any corrupt cats yet." She picked her words carefully, in case another cat was wandering about looking for shelter.

"Do you know what happened to us? Like, how we got this way?"

And why was she spending her free time thinking about catching that jay squawking at her and tearing its stupid feathers off?  

[litian]

“I remember the Duels of Destiny” Athene had managed to get to the second round of the competition on account of his first opponent – a scary green-haired senshi whose name he'd never managed to get – being knocked out. “I managed to break my own ornament” the dark-eared cat's voice was rueful as he recalled where he'd heard the name Grus from. “You're the senshi of feathers right?” Although phrased as a question it wasn't one really. He remembered Grus as being a nice opponent to 'mock battle' against.

It was cosy in the little room under the tree roots, the sound of rain pattering outside pleasant. Although the dark-eared cat knew that it was only pleasant because he was no longer stuck in it. “I haven't a clue,” he admitted. “One minute I was returning home from patrol – the next I have four paws and a stubby tail. You're actually the first non cat-cat I've across.”  

[Blue Eyed Melloon]

"That I am." She said, grinning a kitty grin. At least she knew someone in the same predicament! All the other senshi had been ones she had never met before. 'Though know I don't know if we are technically senshi. Senshi cats perhaps?"

One paw crossed over the other as she thought, casting her eyes toward the rooted ceiling. "The same thing happened to me. I was just standing on a rooftop and suddenly poof! I'm a foot tall with no tail." And ever since then, she hadn't been able to return home.

"I do wonder why we ended up this way.." she said quietly. "I mean, sure there has been some weird stuff that has gone on around here. But nothing that has altered people in such a drastic way." Her eyes fell to an upturned paw in front of her and she gazed at it as if the answers were written on the pads of her toes.  

[litian]

“I guess that makes sense, it's not like we can do senshi things like this” Athene flicked his stubby tail, before studying his paws and giving in to the urge to lick at them with neat little laps of his tongue.

“Going from human one minute to a cat the next is definitely the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me.” It even trumped finding out that there was such a thing as talking cats and that he was supposedly some sort of 'superhero'. Athene paused in the grooming of his feet as a thought occurred to him “Do you think this is something permanent?” The dark-eared cat really, really hoped not – he didn't want to be a cat forever  

[Blue Eyed Melloon]

Red ears flattened at the thought of being a cat forever. While she liked it alright, the lack of home and places to eat made life difficult. Plus the strange urges to chase things like mice scared her. She didn't want to track the little creatures, and she shuddered to think of what her cat mind wanted to do with them. To keep from gagging, she said "I sure hope that we turn back soon. I really don't want to be a cat forever. Plus my family is bound to worry soon as to where I went."

"I've found that I can't do my magic when I'm like this. The only thing I can do is shoot a laser out of my star. I didn't know guardian cats could do that." It certainly would have been helpful a number of times, including when she had first awakened, and ********* had insisted that she defeat it herself, despite the fact that she was having a panic attack.  

[litian]

“I agree, I don't want to be a cat forever either.” Athene's whiskers drooped at the mention of family as he wondered what his cousin was doing. He didn't want think about how she was viewing his sudden disappearance – especially given the fact that due to his current four-pawed and non-opposable thumb status he hadn't exactly been able to leave a note. All he could hope for was that she wasn't worrying too much about him.

At Grus' mention of a laser, he gave the other cat a curious look. “Guardian cats have lasers?” ********* hadn't mentioned that ability when she'd given him his henshin pen, neither had Tomlin. A thought occurred to him “Talking about guardian cats – do you think they might know what happened?”  

[Blue Eyed Melloon]

The whole conversation was starting to depress her. The rain wasn't helping either. It was still pitter pattering outside, making leaving unfeasible. "I'm sure we will turn back soon." She said, trying to reassure Athene. She didn't mean to make him sad, and it was clear she had upset him. A red paw reached out and landed softly on the other's shoulder.

The thought of guardian cats causing the feline-ification was a new one. So far she had assumed that the Negaverse and Chaos were involved. This idea seemed less harmful and more accidental. But why did they cats turn them into cats? Surely it wasn't easier to fight a Negaverse agent this way.

"Maybe the cats do have something to do with this. We should find one and ask them what happened. But for now, the warm air and the rhythm outside made her eyelids flutter closer together. It was night, but she had no sense of time inside the tree root cave. Her head drooped, and the paw slid off of Athene's shoulder. She stretched a little, ears brushing his fur slightly.

"Sorry I just kind of got tired all of the sudden." She said sleepily, trailing off at the end of her sentence.  

[litian]

Athene gave Grus' paw a friendly nose, a quiet thank-you for the friendly paw. The thought that guardian cats might actually be involved with this whole cat business was one that had honestly not crossed the dark-eared cat' mind – more he'd been thinking on how the two cats (well ********* at least), seemed to have a good idea of what was going on around here – so maybe they knew what was going on with this cat business.

“It's okay, if I see a guardian cat then I'll ask too.” Grus' sleepiness seemed infectious, or maybe it was the warmth of the space combined with the rhythmic pitter-patter of the rain outside. At any rate Athene found himself yawning “Oh. Excuse me.” A pause and then he added, his voice also somewhat sleepy “I'll try to let you know if I find something.”  

[Blue Eyed Melloon]

It took her a moment to respond as she was dozing, but the words came in hushed tones when she did, as f making them louder would be too much effort. "And if I find anything else out, I'll let you know too. Us cats gotta stick together." Her eyes closed for another moment and a large kitty yawn felt like it was going to break her jaw. She plopped her head down on her paws and once again dearly wished for a long tail to wrap around her toes.

Ah well she thought at least I'm not alone.