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Destiny City, a place of danger and supposedly terrorism and vigilantes. Cassian Norris waited as Charley Norris - his mother- handed off a box to him from the back of the moving truck. “It’s nice to be near home,” she said and the boy nodded, though….for him, it was far, far from home. Home was across an ocean and partially across a continent. Home was far away, in a land of rich history and grand mythologies that reached out to the stars.

Home was missing a hero.

The thought lingered in his mind as he carried the box up the quaint stretch of sidewalk up towards the two story split-level house. It was painted a faint pink color that Charley insisted to Eli Norris - his father- they were going to have to get redone as soon as they were settled in and ‘all the other little things’ were fixed. Little things, like the partially finished basement with two bedrooms, or the lack of a handrail in the living room, or the roof that Eli had nearly put his foot through when he went up to investigate it.

The house, while nice in some ways, was also a mess.

But four bedrooms were four bedrooms. Enough for Eli Norris to have his own office to work his translating job in while Charley was off in the city during the day. A room for the two to sleep in, then Cassian got to sleep in the unfinished basement next to the room of his little brother. Dean Norris toddled along behind Cassian, holding a much smaller box. “Cass!” he simpered after him, and Cassian turned around to wait for him.

Charley and Eli Norris had three children: Cassian, Dean, and the eldest - Nicole. Nicole, an adult by all stretches of the imagination (some of which still required brain bleach) had opted to stay in Greece to finish school (College. She was a real grown up, after all). Nicole was already 23, Cassian a fresh 17, and Dean a young 11. They...they had really spaced out their children. Eli always said it was because of his wife’s work, but…..


But it wasn’t a big deal.

“We’re gonna have rooms of our own now!” Dean was thrilled and to be honest it was the only thing that Cassian liked about the move. Back in Greece the two had shared a room while Nicole had her own because 1) she was a girl 2) she needed to study because she was a grown up. “Yeah!” Cass agreed as he walked up the front step, eyeballing some scuffs of paint in the entryway as he walked down the stairs to crack open the door at the bottom of them.

The hallway was awkwardly set up, the door blocking a closet when it was propped open to show off a lot of framework (at least the bathroom and the two bedrooms were finished off). Dean headed off to the room with green walls - Cassian just couldn’t do green for some reason - while he himself walked into a room that reminded him vaguely of a cave. It had black and brown paint on the walls and it really..really looked bad. But it wasn’t green. So despite being the older sibling, he’d chosen the smaller, less nice room. He told Dean that it was because he was going to be old enough to move out soon that Dean should get a big room he could stay in for a long time. It was an easy statement that made him not look like a stranger that had weirdness about a color as well as an awesome older brother.

He set the box on one of the built in shelves in the closet, then headed back outside. Dean trailed along after him.

It took the whole afternoon to move boxes from the truck into the house. On occasion Eli would ask Charley why they hadn’t hired movers and Charley insisted that it would build character for the boys to do some heavy lifting in their lives. Cassian was just glad once the couch was inside that he got to collapse on it. The house was full of unpacked boxes and for their efforts, they also didn’t have anything resembling a kitchen yet. When Charley Norris hinted at a grocery shopping trip, Eli immediately veto’d it.

“The boys are tired, Charley. Let’s just order something easy in and go shopping tomorrow after we get the boys settled in.”

Cassian had agreed wholeheartedly with the notion.


7:30 at night after unloading boxes all day, Cassian Norris followed after his mother and the cart she pushed around the store. Eli had only managed to spare himself and Dean from the trek. But neither Charley nor Eli Norris cooked. So along with being a strong man that could bring groceries in, Cassian Norris, the family cook had to also pick them out and then make dinner. To Charley, her son standing there in the meat section looking between two packages of meat, and then at the butcher counter was a draining task. She leaned on the cart as Cassian walked between them, eventually flagging down one of the men to get various packages of meat wrapped in brown paper.

Cassian wasn’t impressed by any of it. He’d have to find a proper butcher and soon. It was going into summer as well. Maybe he’d have time to start a small garden that would be ready once the high time of the farmer’s market season was at an end….when was that over in the states? Which box was his pasta machine in? Did they have any fresh herbs here or was he going to have to get some dried out jarred ones like a heathen -

At some point in time, he’d started muttering under his breath in a disdainful tone and Charley Norris simply accepted it, not asking any questions as her son put things in the cart. Even if sometimes they were...questionable (what was he going to cook that had anchovies in it?).

“We’ll need to make another trip at the end of the week. This will cover lunches for everybody as well as dinner until I’ve settled in.” he said, watching as his mother put in several 12-packs of soda into the cart. He held onto the side of the cart as they continued on along, eyes glazing over at the latest tabloid headlines that were in this country. Why did everybody care about Kim Kardashian? She was OK looking, he guessed, but her husband was a bit of a d**k and they were questionable about naming their children. Their ever growing compass, as his mother joked (she’d stolen the joke from some lady named Ellen).

Loading and unloading groceries was it’s own share of exhaustion - mostly because his mother didn’t help. Eli and Dean at least carried in the last of the food while Cassian set to unpacking several dishes and organizing his DOMAIN.

While they hadn’t gotten their phones transferred over stateside yet, Cassian hurriedly unpacked his tablet from a bag that sat on top of a box in his room, running upstairs with it to snap a picture of the half-unpacked kitchen, covered in bags from the store. He opened up twitter and posted the picture to it;

[Tweet Maker: ‘CookingCassicorn’

‘Look at my new cooking domain! It’s beautiful! Hope to show you all lots of vids in it!’]

Then he set the tablet on the counter, pulling up a Youtube video of some eerie sounding piano song to play in the background as he put groceries away. With everything in it’s rightful place, he then dethroned it all. A brown paper package was pulled out of the fridge, a few of the HEATHEN dried herbs, and - to Cassian’s great disdain - prepackaged pasta. A few cheeses sat on the counter as well as a half gallon of milk.

“He’s going to have a fit this week to get this place up to his previous routine,” Eli said quietly to his wife, watching their son from the doorway. Charley sighed. “Yeah. But I think he’ll enj- is he putting honey on that anchovy he just took out of the can?” She should have known better than to ask. Cassian did this all the time, and as he put the fish in his mouth, his shoulders stiffened up slightly.

Quietly he picked up the tablet again and tweeted;

[‘CookingCassicorn’

‘Sriracha, Honey, and Anchovy - Actually sort of OK. Will try non-canned fish.’]

Then he was back to his task at hand - only once Dean had also gotten to try some of the weird concoction that Cassian had put together. His face scrunched up. “Funny texture,” the 11 year old said. Cassian nodded. “Yeah, I’m gonna try it with shrimp I think.”

His hands washed, his cooking was like a montage - butter and flour and shredding cheeses, carefully browning chicken, SEETHINGLY boiling pasta (HEATHEN, HEATHEN PASTA), and then waiting. Lingering above everything, he squinted and micromanaged his actions. It was entertaining for the first 15 minutes.

Eventually his family went to unpack the TV onto the floor and watch whatever could be found on basic cable (Law and Order. That’s what they had going for them).

The first taste test made the boy sigh, tilting his head side to side thoughtfully before shaking it. The sauce was dumped out and he started again. Try to followed the same way. It was only the third time that he seemed at least somewhat complacent with it (also a whole thing of milk was now gone to the whims of a picky cook). Silently, he plated up the meals with a nitpickiness that only a 5 star chef would have.

“Dinner’s done!”

In two trips, he delivered plates to first his parents, then to himself and Dean.

Finally, for the first time all day, he got to sit down, sighing as he sank back against the couch.

Tomorrow he’d have to begin to reorganize his life in Destiny City.

But first, baked chicken alfredo.

Sometimes at night, when he was actually at home, in his own bed, Cassian would close his eyes, and he'd dream. He could never remember them when he woke up, or if they had actually happened, but that night was like any other....

“Minchir stop.”

Cassian paused, looking back to the taller, older senshi. Deacon Brandy, a young man with red hair and bright green eyes (was one of his parents Irish? Cassian couldn’t remember), gave him a stern look which only made the Senshi of Day hesitate briefly.

“[!!!!] and {!!!!} aren’t ready.” Deacon stated and Minchir looked away towards where the twins - Sampson and Sylvia Damon - were setting up some sort of a trap. Deacon had laid out an entire plan for the Negaverse Agent that had raided the area with their small herd of Youma. Cassian’s job was simple: if they came in his direction, he’d throw them into a blinding light field to make them retreat the other direction.

If lights didn’t work, Deacon - [####] - would use his brute force to push them back in the right direction. Reqet Simons, {****}, would be the confusion tactic. As the physically weakest member of the trio (sorry, Reqet), she’d be the weak point in the circle that they’d try to push through and end up between {!!!!} and [!!!!]. The twins, with their delicate sounding spheres, were a real force of nature to deal with. Mostly because Sylvia would knock their lights out with her fists before any of her {!!!!} Soft Landing took place.

With a deep sigh, Cassian took a few steps back, waiting until the signal was sent off. It was one of those vague things that the team had agreed on - knowing that if anybody wasn’t paying attention, they’d miss it for it’s subtlety. That had been intentional. It made it easier to communicate without enemies also catching the queue.

But it was also not something that would happen accidentally.

Once the signal was sent, Cassian - Minchir began the move to his new spot.

“Wall of {****}!” Reqet went first. The idea was to reinforce that Reqet would be their ultimate target to push through. Because obviously, she didn’t want them going that way. The youma howled and the Agent turned to look towards the wall. “What….are they….” his eyes narrowed and he pushed the Youma to thrash up against the wall. That gave Minchir exactly 5 seconds to respond.

It was a job they only gave him because frankly, who else would jump into the middle of the group like that? Minchir jumped from his position (now that he had permission to) in order to plant himself into the middle of the group, clapping his hands together to begin the formation of the sphere of light as he descended.

He knew to close his eyes, clenching them shut as howls of displeasure filled the air, creatures clutching their eyes and even the Negaverse agent looking away with a hiss. Perfect. How was the plan to go from here? Cassian quietly counted to 15, opening his eyes in time to be grabbed as he stepped back.

They hadn’t planned on a second agent. It was so stupid, they should have. It wasn’t as though the Negaverse hadn’t noticed their activities. Cassian had barely leaned forward to begin fighting back when [####] suddenly charged in, hitting the other figure - a woman - as though he was a tonne of bricks - and to be fair, with a sphere like that, it probably would have broken every bone in a lesser person’s body. Minchir recoiled, shook his head, then jumped back. The two senshi stood next to each other, frowning firmly at the Negaverse agents that were now standing in their thrall of youma between the two boys and the wall that had been put up.

One agent motioned the youma towards the wall and the creatures thrashed against it. The other agent motioned more youma towards the two boys. This..complicated things. Reqet wasn’t an offensive player. She was purely defensive and the plan had been for the two boys to be with her by the time she’d be put in any danger. The large crack forming down the wall made him nervous, looking to Deacon who had a firm frown on his face.

They needed to get to her.

Deacon’s muscles flexed and he immediately charged in, pushing through the youma with the same brunt force that he’d struck the Agent with. That was two of two, that meant Cassian was now the offensive player between the two of them, and he fell into step behind Deacon, waiting until they were up close and personal to deploy his second Light of Day.

With the moment of blindness, Cassian guided Deacon through the sunlight until they both crashed against the wall. The only major fault with the wall, outside of the crack, was that it had the same limitations as a wall - Deacon gave Cassian a foot up, Cassian hoisted Deacon up, and then over they both went. Nothing would keep the Youma or Negaverse agents from doing the same thing.

The three lingered together, listening to the anxious scratching of creatures on the other side while looking between each other.

“Well now what?” Reqet asked and Deacon frowned. Cassian grabbed both of their shoulders. “We spend a minute being afraid. Then we go ahead with what we’re doing anyways,” he said, pushing them both ahead to start running. So there was another Negaverse agent. That just meant they’d proceed with their plans as usual.

Running like scared fools actually ended up working better, as the agents and their monsters set to chasing them down the alleyway they had set up to bottleneck, eventually breaking out into another pavilion where there was easily no way for them to break away.

Soon it was the three scouts, standing in wait for their fates to come to them.

They didn’t. Cassian looked to Deacon nervously. Deacon did his best to not look anywhere that would have betrayed there were Senshi in hiding, instead pointedly looking around as though he was waiting for someone to fall out of the sky upon them.

An agent dropped from above and Deacon moved to intercept them, weight hitting his heavy muscles (lord, he was so buff. Cassian tried to be that buff and it didn’t work out) before Deacon pushed him back. A fist fight ensued. Another agent dropped and Cassian had to wait for him to hit the ground before jumping in, swinging at the man’s face. The man easily pushed Cassian back into Reqet, the two stumbling into a pile.

The agent raised a weapon, bringing it down to swing when the two senshi were suddenly covered in something soft and white. “{!!!!} Soft Landing! There will be none of that!” The weapon struck the pile. White fluff flew everywhere, but Cassian and Reqet seemed to be fine. “What-” the agent barely had time to turn around before a not-so-delicate fist was thrown RIGHT INTO HIS FACE.

Sylvia was not a delicate woman in any sense of the word, she was built in such a way people on tumblr would say ‘She could kill me and I’d thank her for the honor’, dark toned muscles and a trained physique. Watching her hit people made Cassian feel funny. It was just so… pleasant on the eyes. As the agent hit the ground, Sylvia offered a hand to each Reqet and Cassian.

“{****}, block off the way out, Minchir, how are you on magic?” As Reqet left to erect her second wall, Cassian took a deep breath. “I’m spent. I’m good for hitting things now.” he confessed. Sylvia regarded him then nodded. “Sampson and I will take care of the rest of this then.”

That had been the plan. Certainly now there were TWO agents (one of which was in a fist-fight with Deacon), but Sylvia didn’t seem worried at all. She held up a single finger in the air and a layer of something..suffocating fell from the sky. A man who seemed to be the physical male counterpart to Sylvia came with it. The two siblings grabbed the blanket-like object and quietly, Sampson wrapped it around the down’s Nega’s head. Sylvia sat on the man’s chest and pressed her hands into his face, knees set on his arms to keep the flailing down to a minimum as the darkest part of their plans began.
Sampson, on the other hand, joined Deacon, who had knocked down the agent he was in a fight with and was digging his hands into their face, one punch after another. Nobody tried to stop him. Instead, Sampson began pushing back Youma behind Reqet’s wall.

The wall had mostly been for privacy, after all.

It took barely 5 minutes once both Negas were on their backs.

Cassian should have felt something as the blanket disappeared from under Sylvia’s hands or when he watched the smear of blood dripping across the pavement by Deacon. But this was how it was - if they didn’t do it, they’d have it done unto them. Two more bodies to be found in the morning and be reported in the papers. This was why they moved in a group at all times. There were no solo scouts in Greece.

They didn’t even change back to their civilian glamours until they were near Sampson and Sylvia’s house. Everybody would need a shower and then sleep.

Another scratch that’d be buffed out.


And as always, he'd wake up the next morning, remembering very little of what dreams there were or if he'd only remembered.