Early morning in Destiny City meant several things: children sleeping snugly in their beds while their parents roused to begin the work day - or tired bodies returning home to end the work night. It meant the sun slowly creeping up to dress the city in soft purples and pinks and oranges as nocturnal creatures returned to their roosts and dens and those that graced the day slowly stretched and began their hunt for food, for life.
For Colin, the early morning was the birth of a day filled with oppourtunities and possibilities: he loved it. He was a dancer and he kept a fairly strict schedule for working out that typically involved these glorious early mornings. First he would run, then a shower and finally breakfast! After that...well, that was wholly dependant upon the time of year: during the school year he would attend his classes (now at Hillworth Grammar, formerly Meadowview with his sister) and during the summer...well, he'd probably spend his morning at the dance studio.
This morning found him out jogging, a smile on his face as his sneakered feet pounded the pavement. Running gave him a blank slate upon which to think, drift or dream. He didn't need to be attractive, didn't need to worry about his grades, his family or even what his next project via the studio was. It was just Colin and the road (or trail, whatever he was running on)...and that was the way that he liked it. Very few people were welcome to join him on his early morning runs because most of them would try to converse or otherwise distract him.
Of course, jogging so early also meant putting on seasonally appropriate clothing for his early morning jog. Tying on his atheletic sneakers and tucking his dorm keys safely against his person so that they wouldn't fly out while he was running. No cell phone came with him (except in the cooler months when he wore the wind-breaker jacket and zipper-pocket jogging pants) and usually no music either - he much preferred to just think or zone-out. Sometimes he enjoyed jogging to music, but he found that it could be quite dangerous to do that: too often he'd seen joggers in their own little worlds - their iPod's or Zune's or whatever they had blasting in their ears - nearly getting themselves hurt due to turning cars, people on bicycles or scooters or skateboards: if you couldn't hear danger coming, how could you avoid it?
In the early morning chill, he opted for a light pair of windbreaker pants in a red with a bone-colored t-shirt that had a band logo on it (he'd picked it up at a Fair to Midland concert that he'd been given tickets for on his last birthday). Because he had the windbreaker pants he did take his wallet as well as his keys...just in case. Something told him to do it - he'd even stood in his room with the slim wallet in his hand, debating leaving it or taking it. With a soft whistle, Colin left his room and headed outside for his jog.
The curly-haired blond kept a good pace, his body falling into the practiced rhythm smoothly and with the ease of one long accustomed to such things. He was well into his jog when he heard a pitiful mewling sound nearly drowned out by the low growling of dogs. Because he didn't wear headphones, he heard this and immediately veered his course to intervene. A poor kitty was in danger and there was no way that he would let something that sounded so...lost and tiny be mauled. "Hold on kitty, I'm coming!" Colin sprinted towards the sounds, running towards some kitchy-looking diner - the sounds were coming from the alley next to it!
Two grey-brown mutts had a tiny, fluffy kitten trapped! The poor thing was on top of a covered trash-can, the remains of a waffle at it's feet (how weird, do cats normally like waffles?) as it cried and hissed at the slavering beasts. The kitten's tawny fur looked plush, the collar-and-bell ensemble gave her the look of someone's pampered pet - clearly this little baby needed help. "Hey! Get out of there! Shoo!" The dogs whirled, growling and baring their teeth at him, but Colin picked up a rock and tossed it - not to hit the dogs (because he wasn't a cruel boy) but to get them to shy away from the trash can and the kitten atop it. Luckily, with the appearance of the human and his rock, the dogs decided to otherwise occupy their time: they whined, growled at the cat one last time, and then both slunk further down the alley to "escape" via the open far end. Apparently the waffle and kitten weren't worth tangling with a human.
Once they were gone, Colin turned his attention back to his 'rescue'; the wall-eyed little fluff-ball was looking up at him with a slightly odd expression, but then it proceeded to devour the waffle-section (obviously someone's left-overs)...almost as though it were trying to protect it's "prize" from him by eating it quickly. "Wow." He shook his head and then tried coming closer to the trashcan and cat, "Hey there kitty, it's okay - I didn't want your waffle...I just wanted to keep those dogs from eating you. It's okay kitty..." Derp allowed him to come closer - maybe Astrea had told her to be more wary of strangers, but this was a nice boy! He had saved her - and her waffle! - from those horrible dogs! There was no way he was a 'bad guy'; Derp would have known. She was totally sure of this.
So Colin was able to pick up the tiny kitten; hold her (he decided that the kitten was female by that point though really, he didn't know/couldn't tell) close to his chest while looking at her adorable, miss-matched eyes. "What a cutie you are...I bet you've got an owner somewhere, don't you?" He petted her and scritched between her little ears, looking around as he did so - if she had an owner (and she obviously did) then maybe they'd be wandering around the waffle shop looking for her? His fingers brushed over a spot on the kitten's forehead and suddenly there was a little jolt along Colin's spine. "What the--?" He frowned and looked down at the tiny, smoosh-faced fluff-ball in his arms; static shock wouldn't have done that, would it? Maybe, but then why hadn't he gotten jolted before when he was touching her? No...that made no sense.
Neither did the little star marking that appeared on the kitten's forehead, right where Colin had been petting when he felt that weird frission. Staring down at her, the blond felt that his reality was somehow skewing sidewise. "Okay kitty, either I'm going crazy...or you just got a star on your forehead." Maybe he needed to get something to eat? It hadn't been a problem before now - he always went jogging before breakfast - but...who knew? Colin rubbed at his eyes with one hand, the other still holding the tiny kitten with the star on it's forehead, but it was to no avail: that star stayed right there...mocking his sanity but also tantalizing those parts of him that wanted to believe aliens and magical-seeming creatures/things existed. He was, after all, a Trekkie (and possibly more prepared to believe in talking kittens than most of the unawakened senshi Derp had met)!
It seemed that when he acknowledged the star on the kitten's forehead that it got extremely excited; the fluffball was all but vibrating in his arms when the strangest thing yet happened: the kitten started talking!
"Yes yes, oh good! Derp fou~nd you! You save Derpraline. And Pray's waffles. Mmm...waffles. More waffles for Derp?" Colin stared as the kitten in his arms - was it's name Derp? No, it was Derpraline (wasn't that pretty! It must have been a bad joke to give a cutie like her such a mean nick name) - chattered on about having found him, about his having "saved" it from being devoured by evil dogs and about waffles. After a moment of him staring at her with a semi-curious, semi-disbelieving face Derp stopped her babbling on about waffles and took on a strained look. She was preterbed - when Astrea or the others did this, the senshi got it and accepted what they were! When Derpraline did it, they seemed stupified and generally didn't believe her...it made the Persian kitten sad, but she was absolutely determined to get this curly haired boy - so pretty! - to a) believe her b) use the henshin pen she would (Serenity willing) give him to transform and c) wear a fabulous hat that she would give him!
"You're a talking cat." The boy croaked the words out as the kitten tried to have him put her back on top of the covered trashcan. "Seriously, this is..." And here, Derpraline's typical encounter would end, because Colin wasn't going to start blathering about how "this couldn't be happening" or how it "wasn't real". Instead, he finished that thought with, "...amazing!!"
Green eyes lit up with awe, curiousity and excitement, "You can talk. Where are you from? Wow, do you talk to everyone, or just people that help you?" Many questions got fired at the poor, wall-eyed Persian kitten and she sat on the textured black plastic lid with her eyes going in different directions; she was wholly confused by Colin's rapid-fire questions and by his (seamingly) easy acceptance of a talking cat named Derpraline that was willing to face down not one, but two hungry stray dogs just to keep a few bites of waffle. He was definitely confusing her...but at least he wasn't freaking out! Derpraline shook her little head and waved a paw at him - amazingly enough, just that silenced her new blond friend and the boy leaned over with his hands on his legs, waiting to hear (or see) what Derp had to say.
"Nice boy is senshi! Derp found him. Yes yes, really listen, nice-boy!" She bounced in excitement, enjoying having someone's full attention for once! "First, yes first! I am Derpraline. You are senshi so you can call Derp whatever you want! Derpraline, Derp. Pray, DP~ Anything senshi wants!" Colin absorbed this and only interupted the fluffy kitten to tell her his name. "Call-in. Call-in is Derp's senshi!" She didn't explain what a senshi was, but then...really, she couldn't. Not really. "Now. Now now now...Call-in waits, yes? Wait for Pray's gift. Senshi will want it, Derp will give it~ Just wait!"
Screwing her eyes shut, Derpraline crouched and then attempted to leap up and backwards in a magical backflip. Unfortunately, she was quite clumsy at it. After telling Colin to "wait" and "be still" (because he kept trying to "rescue" her from herself), she had to make the attemp five times before she was able to complete the requisite motion (it was terribly adorable and Colin kept thinking it was her tiny little legs that kept her from making the backflip happen - though the why behind Derpraline's wont to do such a thing was wholly unknown to him) and produce several objects from thin air. She was quite happy with the two objects that fell onto the trashcan lid - a large victorian-style hat, a dark blue cell-phone (at least, it looked like a cell-phone, even if it really wasn't) and a strange-and-clunky looking pen in a deep midnight blue with gold. Derp took the pen in her mouth and moved closer to the edge so that she could give it to Colin.
It was strange, just how right that weird pen felt in his hand, but Derpraline was beaming at him as though he were one of her beloved waffles. "Derp is so happy! Hat is for Call-in! Pen is for Call-in!" She nodded, fairly vibrating with joy at her accomplishments; "Call-in is Aegir!."
"Aegir?" The blond's hand opened a bit so he could look down at the pen he'd clasped there; a pen...a phone...and Derpraline was calling him Aegir. Telling him that he was Aegir. A "senshi". "What's that?"
Derp's tiny ears twitched and her tail swished in a pleased manner at him - this senshi was accepting what she said! He was listening and acting like Astrea had said senshi would! It was wonderful! "Aegir is sen-shi! Call-in is Aegir." There was more, yes...there was something more -- oh right! Derp remembered, she had to teach him how to say it - if he didn't say it they wouldn't know he meant it! And that would be bad, so terrible..like never having waffles...like dogs chasing you or being left outside in the cold rain or or or -- never having pretty hats!
Once more she got Colin's attention. "This...this this this...important! You have to say it, or it won't work. You can say it, right?" She was excited but she waited until he'd nodded his assent before going on. "It's..uhm...ummm...." Pray's eyes crossed as she strained her tiny, fluffy kitten brain to remember, but then an almost beatific expression came over the kitten: she remembered! "Say 'Aegir Power, Make-up!' Say it strong and loud, okay? Okay! Derp did so good~ I remembered!" Although Colin had agreed with her that he could say such a thing, he didn't do it immediately, which was what Derpraline had expected/wanted to happen. "Colin should say now! Try for Derpraline, pleaaaase?" If it meant finding another senshi and showing them how to access their powers properly (or getting another waffle or more food) then she wasn't above weilding her insane amount of cuteness and begging (kitty begging, not stupid-icky doggy begging). She sat on her tiny (adorable) haunches and gave him a look until the curly haired blond sighed and said he'd try it.
"Okay, okay...I'll say it now." Colin straightened and glanced around; the alley was still empty and it was early enough that there weren't people milling around just yet. Even if he did something that made him feel stupid or foolish...well, only the talking kitten would see or hear it. Besides...he really did want to know what might happen if he said those words while holding that weird pen!
"Aegir Power, Make-up!"
Whatever he'd been expecting to happen (or hoping to happen), this was not it: Colin found himself naked - entirely naked - but thankfully that lasted mere seconds as a white body suit appeared automagically to cover him up. That wasn't the end of it, oh no - there was more! As he felt his body moving in a manner that was completely foreign while also being strangely familiar, he could see more pieces of what could only be called a costume appearing on his body. At the end of it, he was left standing in the shadowy alley wearing a rediculously brief outfit while standing next to a rediculously cute talking kitten.
"Oh my god...what is this!?!?" Derpraline was absolutely no help in explaining just what had actually happened or why he ended up wearing a white body suit with a freaking sheer sarong-type thing around his hips though she did say she thought he looked very pretty - but needed a hat. Perhaps two different ones, to wear alternately, since he had such pretty colors! Even if Colin-Aegir decided that he didn't want to wear multiple hats while transformed, she was supremely happy with herself (and him, of course). The hats didn't really count - they barely mattered at all in the scheme of things, what mattered was that Derpraline had found another senshi, had awoken him and had taught him what he needed to know! Kind of - time would tell and Colin would definitely go out seeking other senshi to fill in the blanks left by his adorable Guardian kitten.
"Oh oh! Aegir must know! If big bad ugly shows up, if youma show up - you say more!" She nodded sagely and then purled up at him as though smiling with her whole tiny body; "Your attack, senshi's attack! You say "Aegir Golden Mute! Just like before, but say that. Use attack until monster goes away." There. Now he knew what he needed to - except it seemed that he didn't because Colin - Aegir - was asking her more questions. Lots of questions...half an hour's worth, nearly! It was nice that he was using small words, but still...they were confusing her. Some she could answer - and would, of course - some she couldn't. When Derp couldn't give Colin an appropriate answer, she just shook her petite-kitty head and chirped that 'Strea would fill him in because Astrea was smart and good and knew all about senshi and youma and everything. Clearly she idolized this other person that had all the answers; it did make Colin feel better knowing that there were others that knew what was going on, what it meant for him to be a senshi...what a youma was...what the point to all of this transforming, talking cats, big bad ugly "youma" and crazy magical costuming was all about.
Colin, having powered down with Derp's help, was feeling a bit out of sorts - it wasn't every day that one found out that they were able to transform into a 'senshi' via a stick thing given to them by a talking cat - but after a while he had to go. Breakfast waited and...well, he would meet up with Derp again and go see this all-knowing Astrea. Until then, he'd just have to live with knowing only the barest bones of who - and what - he was.
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