2537 words

Feliks had insisted on walking Kata to her friend's with the night having been nippy and dreary. It was a hell of a night for a last minute sleep over. Kata insisted she'd be okay but with the days growing shorter and the night longer. He knew patrols would pick up sooner rather than later. It was getting to chilly to be out late for most people and a trip that was past six pm he felt was too much of a risk. Instead of telling her she couldn't go though he told her he'd walk her.

It wasn't that he didn't trust her, it was he didn't trust anything else.

"Kata stop fighting Geeze, I know you're 'old enough to walk yourself to your friends' but there's weird stuff that happens at night. It's when those terrorist come out and all those animal attack happen." He sighed hating having to refer to himself as a terrorist. However, it was best to keep her from having to deal with it. The bruises they couldn't see, and could see. He often hid his injuries more and more. While he could claim skateboarding happened to cause some of them not all of the injuries would be covered under that bracket.

"Why, why can't I walk myself!? It's not even that far. I mean come on I've made this trip a million times why is now any different?" Kata huffed as she stared at Feliks.

He could feel the hatefulness in her glare. "Come on Kata, you know why." He said, "It's getting darker early. They're more likely to come out and cause trouble while people are still around. It's not like we didn't go through this last year. As long as it's daylight outside it's not as bad, they're not as active in the day. It seems like the stories that go around about them, they like to pick on the loners. I can't let my sis get mugged by one of them."

Feliks was trying his best to convince her that this was really the reason. Though it seemed the older she got the harder it was to convince her of this. What was painful, was that Kata constantly fought against his logic now. He'd been lucky she hadn't been attacked, he felt though like it was growing a thin line. He didn't want them having her, nor did he want her experiencing any of the fighting and problems he was having. Feliks knew he was trying to be over protective but he was doing his best to keep his whole family safe, out of this.

"That's stupid." She replied finally, "You talk about them like they're everywhere. I've never seen one of these terrorist up close. Or any of this other non-sense. You're just making sure I'm going to my friends and that I don't have a boyfriend or something." Kata was trying to push his buttons, to make him back off of thinking she wasn't able to protect herself or that he wouldn't know what she was doing anyways.

Felik's eyes narrowed when she spoke. "You're not taking this seriously." He said finally without another word. He heard a trashcan clatter, and stopped holding his hand out to stop Kata as he did. "Wait a minute."

"It was just a cat turning a trashcan over." Kata said bored of this already and pushed past Feliks. They were in a part of town with apartments and alleyways that could've been a cat or a dog.

Feliks reached and grabbed Kata's collar pulling her back from the alleyway just as something came snarling towards her. "KATA. I told you stop."

That was the last time he needed to tell her to stop. Kata screamed and ran behind him as she was a very large and very mangy cat slowly stalk out of the alleyway. Peering around her brother as he watched the monster stop to face him. Tail twitching in an irritated manner. "W-what do we do?" Kata hissed, as Feliks made her take a slow step back.

He seemed to think and look around keeping an eye on the monster, he saw a few cars. There didn't seem to be anything anywhere else near by other alleyways. "Run." He said to her, "Run, don't look back. Get somewhere safe, text me I'll come find you. I'll distract it." He added as he pushed her back away from him.

Kata didn't have to be told twice to run. However, she stopped when she ducked into an Alleyway, heart pounding in her ears.

"Victoria Asteroid Power, Make-up!"

Kata could hear his voice. What was he yelling? Her head stuck out from around the building before he could finish and she saw blinding lights and basically what was very magical girl trope transformation. Kata's jaw drop as she stood there, coming out from the Alleyway to watch him.

Victoria stood there watching the monster before running towards it aiming a punch. He wasn't sure he could scare it off but maybe he could dust it alone. His main concern would be far enough away by now he wouldn't have to worry about her. He could deal with this somehow. The paw struck him, drawing blood from his side as he hissed out punching it in the nose.

He was looking for things to use that were around the area. Though he found little in the way of anything useful he managed to pick up a trashcan lid. He used it to help block blows and hit back. At least until the lid was crushed where he couldn't make use of it anymore. He never saw his sister standing there watching him in terror as he fought and was hurt. For every blow he landed the monster landed almost the same amount. Victoria was able to dodge some, at some point though he found himself pinned by the monster unable to move.

Kata was still standing there her hands to her mouth as she watched. She wasn't sure what to do, how to help until he was pinned. It looked like the monster was going to make chow out of him. Kata searched desperately until she saw a two by four and some other scraps. She ran and grabbed the piece of lumber and a sharp metal, stick. It looked like it use to be part of a fire escape but now it was discarded and left to rust on its own. She ran with them in her hands, the monster's focus changed.

"KATA NO!" He saw her too late. He thought she was gone. He was sure that she wouldn't have to see this. He kicked the monster in the stomach as it moved towards new, fresh blood. "KATA YOU GOTTA RUN."

"No!" She cried as she threw the metal piece it clattered to the ground nearby and the monster was starting to pick up its pace towards her.

Victoria watched as Kata handled the lumber clumsily. Though she managed to smack the beast with it. He got up, tired, wounded. He felt like he'd lost a fair amount of blood but he couldn't tell if it was really that or if the monster was draining his energy too. . . He snatched the piece of metal and charged.

"YOU LEAVE HER ALONE." He cried jumping and aiming the metal for the monster's back as Kata kept swinging the lumber at the monster. With all his might Victoria rammed the piece of metal through the monster's neck. Causing it to combust into a cloud of moon dust. Victoria stood there winded for a second before collapsing himself. Sitting on the ground looking pale his magenta eyes looked towards his sister as she stood there. He could tell she didn't know what to say or do, he closed his eyes and sighed.

"So.... what do you know?" He finally asked warily.

"We need to get you to a doctor." She answered as she knelt down beside him looking at his wounds, "Those are deep, and horrible. No one's going to believe this." She added as she frowned looking at him. "Feliks what was that?"

He cringed as she confirmed what he thought and he shook his head softly. Thankfully, there were no more Chaos auras around him. He couldn't handle any more tonight. He didn't want to he looked at his sister sadly. He'd failed her and he sat there quiet for a while until he finally sighed trying to stand up but she wouldn't let him. "You can't call me Feliks. . . "He finally said after a second, "Not when I'm like this. . . "

There was a pause, "It's Victoria, and no one else can know." He was looking at her sternly. "No one." He watched as Kata nodded before powering down. "Do you believe in terrorist and monsters now? I'm not telling you that just because I don't trust you. That could've been a lot worse. If that was a Negaverse agent we could've been both been dead or worse. . ."

He shifted slightly as he spoke the words dead or worse. . . He knew Negaverse agents, he had friends in them. However, he wasn't sure how long it'd last before it turned out that he was sleeping in the bed of the enemy. . . He was going to meet the wrong one, one day . . . "You can't always trust them. It's okay to talk to some of them, but as a civilian you cannot trust any of them. Do you understand me?" He said. It didn't matter how tired he was. Feliks was going to look after his family first, "They will take you, abduct you, turn them into one of them. That's not a good thing, they're the force of Darkness, like Darth Vader. While Senshi are the Jedi knights." He looked at her, "If you're ever in trouble look for a senshi, they'll save you. You can't go looking for this trouble though. I know you're favorite Pony is Dash but even she's not rash enough to try and get into this sort of trouble Kats."

Kata was looking as his wounds which were still bleeding, "Feliks, we gotta get you patched up." She said softly, looking at him worried. "You're bleeding pretty bad." Her hands were on his arm closest to her. As she was looking him over, "Do you think Dev'll be able to help? Or do we need to go to a Hospital?" She asked him as she shifted slightly.

Feliks shook his head, "We... probably need to head to ..." He stopped as he thought biting his lower lip. They couldn't go home, not when she was getting his blood on her hands, and the hospital wasn't a good idea nor was anyone else's home... He puffed out his cheeks as he thought and sighed heavily. "The hospital I guess. We can't go to Dev's. You don't know who's Negaverse and who's Senshi. Being a senshi is like being Superman. You have a Clark Kent and you can't tell anyone you're superman."

"With great power, comes great responsibility?" Kata whispered in a question looking at him before helping Feliks up.

"Something like that," He said as he stood up wincing in pain. Wrapping his arm around his little sister as he pulled her close into a one armed hug so as to avoid getting more blood on her. "I just don't want anything to happen to you, I love you sis." He said looking woefully frightened as the realization he could've lost her or she could've been hurt because he wasn't good enough. She had to come to his rescue.

He was suppose to be the older brother, the protector. He wasn't suppose to let the little ducklings get hurt. He shook his head as they walked and she was looking at him with concern. "I'm just not good enough though . . . " He said softly, Kata stopped for a second when he said this. "I've been doing this so long, that I shouldn't've been this badly hurt . . . what if I couldn't've dusted it? It could've really hurt you."

"Feliks!" She said looking at him startled, "It could've killed you. Yet you're still standing here feeling sorry for yourself and worried about me? I don't know much about this magical girl stuff except the little bit of anime's I've read, but I'm pretty sure you were a badass."

It was his turn to be startled, "Kata, language!" He started laughing though a little before wincing up. "What are they teaching you in that school of yours. Surely that's not from English class. I'll have to talk to your teachers."

"You're dumb." Kata replied shaking her head. "Look we're here." She pointed at the emergency care.

"Kata, this isn't the hospital. This is the . . ."

"Cheaper alternative. Maybe we can get you just cleaned up and not have to have you stitched, they don't look that deep."

He was looking at her as she said this his brain was trying to figure out what she was saying. "You're only fourteen how in the world would you know?"

"Skateboarding." She replied looking at him crossed.

It was then he realized she knew he'd been lying for a while about how he'd gotten hurt. "I guess you caught me. Do the others suspect anything?"

Kata shook her head, "The twins are too tied up in their selves to bother, Zoya's not quite old enough, mom and dad and pawpaw and mawmaw are too busy." She answered. "I hear you sneak out at night, sometimes . . . I always wondered what you were up too when you'd preach to us that it was dangerous."

Feliks sighed softly as he looked at his sister frowning a bit, "I'm sorry Kata, I'm just trying to do the best I can. I have to keep ya'll safe and live a normal life too. . . It's not easy. I often feel like I'm walking alone since I can't tell anyone what I really do."

Kata frowned as he spoke and she then wrapped her arms around Feliks hugging him not caring if she got blood on her, "You don't have to walk alone anymore. You don't need to be afraid, I'm here. I'll help you how I can. I'll even learn how to do stitches and take care of wounds better. I'm sure I can get a work permit for a vet or something so I can learn how." She was looking up at him.

He sighed and hugged her back, "Thanks Kata, but you need to focus on your school work and going to college. Unless you want to be a vet tech I can't have fussing over me and worrying about it. I really actually need you to forget what you've seen if you can. I know you worry but this isn't something you can do anything about okay?" He sighed, and then looked at the doors, "Okay so... uh ... I guess we're going with this large mutant cat attacked story.. I think they've gotten use to that by now."