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[SOLO 5] : One Step at a Time


A gentle, grateful purring filled Atlas's left ear as he carefully picked his way down the sidewalk, mindful of the slush and ice. He was walking through the empty streets, and had a kitten riding on his shoulder. This was normal. It was commonplace; it pretty much happened at least once or twice a week, whenever he worked up the courage to go outside and break out his henshin pen again.

This time, however, the rescued feline was only one part of the equation for the evening. If one wanted to see the rest of it, they only had to trace back through the trail of bootprints he was leaving behind him to a streetcorner around half a block away. There the snow over the asphalt and concrete had, curiously, somehow been packed and flattened over the span of a wide circle, and the streetlamp was toppled over and bent like a broken straw, flickering feebly.

In between the snow and the crumpled lamppost was the cracked and squashed remains of a youma, in the process of mouldering away into dust and tar -- its large head having crumbled apart like a rotten cantaloupe upon hitting the ground, a disintegrating claw stretched out before it as if it were in the middle of an attack, or reaching for something. Whatever the case, it was doing no moving now besides the quiet and harmless (but ultimately kind of repulsive) process of rapidly decaying until nothing of it was left but the corrupted star seed used to make it, illuminated dusky orange by the weak light of the lamp.

Around the scene of its demise there were more footprints scattered here and there: the scraping claws of the youma as it gave chase, more clumsily rendered bootprints courtesy of Atlas as he ran, stumbled, and ran again, and the tiny, dainty pawprints of the cat as it slinked and leapt between them both. It had been a long chase, a fair struggle until Atlas had finally taken action.

He had been scared -- as usual, he had been horrified, and it had taken all his willpower and then some to not be frozen where he was standing, to even be able to run -- but with that first step had come another, and then he would have been fine with hiding somewhere and losing the youma, until he had found the cat.

Usually helpless animals only made him sympathize, but this one in particular had made him think.

The cat ended up almost fully distracting the monster, almost became its prey for the night instead of Atlas. It could have ended up the ticket to the senshi's freedom, but likely at the cost of its own life -- and, Atlas had realized, even as he was stopping and turning himself around, it wouldn't have been just that one cat. There would have been other casualties as well. Possibly human ones.

As silly as it had sounded right when he first thought it, lives were at stake regardless of whether he could see them or not. Just like that woman at the animal shelter, just like Virgo, just like all the other people he might have allowed to get hurt or killed without even knowing. If he ran away here, it would have just added more to the death toll.

And he couldn't not do something, knowing that.

That one small thought was why, against the very core of his nature, he'd turned around, rushed forward and snatched the cat up off the ground and stammered out his attack, taking down streetlamp and youma both. He had kept on shaking like a leaf in a tornado for all of five minutes after the fact, but he had done it. And there was no Iris to shout him into action, no Virgo or Thuban to protect him or Alcyone to support him -- not even Sailor Castor dragging him into the fray and trying to shake him until his magic somehow fell out.

He'd somehow been able to do this alone. Atlas wasn't sure how, and he was even less sure if he'd be able to do it again, but the fact that he'd been able to accomplish such a thing even once meant that maybe he was actually worth something.

Maybe.

[REGULAR 12] : 3 Weeks, She Sleeps


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[BATTLE 7] : Wipe-Out!


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[REGULAR 14] : Lonely Rolling Star


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***SUPER TALLY STARTS HERE***

[REGULAR 15] : Please Explain


Atlas looks for a guardian cat, and finds an extra thing or two.


((abandoned))

[REGULAR 17] : This Katamari is Far Too Small!


Galactic powers collide. Literally.

[BATTLE 10] : Destiny City Halloween Masque


Sometimes, there ISN'T room for cake!