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Him. He's a senshi.

Him, the young man--barely that, really--with a puff of dense curly hair who had leaned himself against the wall of a building, staring down at his phone because someone decided they weren't going to cooperate.

'Someone' being a cluster of pixels on his screen that dodged and weaved.

His mothers had suggested that he go take a walk. Fine. It wasn't like he was doing anything at home anyway. A change of pace might do him some good, probably better than watching YouTube videos that were supposed to tell him how to find his life's purpose. None of them had any sort of real merit and honestly felt more like entryways to pyramid schemes. Either that or weird videos about 'gaining power when you feel powerless'.

Kamen didn't feel powerless. He felt purposeless.

He had quickly grown bored of them and was about to start watching the recent TCG tournament when it had been suggested he go outside. So he was doing the next best thing, with his lunch bag slung over one shoulder and holding the precious cargo of a sandwich and carrot sticks. His mom wanted to make sure he had food as he wandered around, even though his ma had handed him twenty dollars for the same ******** Clefairy," he grumbled under his breath, swirling his finger around and attempting yet another curveball, "I swear to ******** if you pop out of that ball one more time, that was an excellent--"

He got the sense he was being looked at, but he figured it was just his grousing about his game and kept at it. He was out of the way of passing foot traffic, and the store whose shopfront he was standing in front of wasn't open anyway--

Kamen cursed under his breath as the Clefairy somehow popped out again--

"I swear to--" he felt something rub up against his shins, something soft and fluffy, distracting him. He ended up curving the ball just a bit too far, and--while he still hit the Pokemon he was attempting to--it was far outside of any of the circles. He ignored it for now, far more distracted by the thrumming and rumbling against his leg.

A cat?

Alright. Sure. There were plenty of strays in the city, and a lot of them were pretty friendly...

Kamen started to bend down to greet it with a pat since it seemed to be friendly and clean and lacked fleas. Very clean and lacking fleas, actually. Lacking the vaguely greasy coarse feeling a lot of stray cats had to their fur.

...Maybe he could figure out who exactly was letting their clearly indoor cat wander outdoors in this neighborhood. Perhaps that could be his purpose of the day--she talked. The cat talked. Said an actual word. Had inflection and everything. Was speaking at him.

He yelped and bunted the cat just slightly out of instinct.

And then was stuck between yelling a, "sorry!" and "Christ, maybe my parents were right about needing a ******** walk--"

Oh no, he'd kicked her--

He'd kicked the cat, he'd kicked the cat, he'd kicked the cat--

Well, at least she somehow landed just fine--because of course she did, she was a cat--but then she kept talking, because of course she did. Because she had just been talking to him. Because how the hell was there a cat that talked christ on a cracker his parents had been unbearably right--

Oh, there was a--

Comic book character. The hell did he step out of, Justice League?

He guessed the cat was Vi. Alright. Made sense. Vi. Vee. Sounded like a video game character too, honestly. They both looked and sounded like something out of a graphic novel.

"Uh, it's fine..." because the comic book character apologized--never mind the fact that the cat was still talking. The comic book character also had a glowing ball of light with him.

Alright.

He was having an aneurysm. Or something. Something was finally coming for him. He didn't remember what he could have read or watched recently that would explain why Freckles looked like that, but Kamen was prepared to roll with it.

Gang wars. Yeah, he heard reference to them. Shrugged it off as things that he would hear about in most any city. It was when she--the cat--started mentioning draining civilians and him being able to stop them --

Oh, no thank you.

Oh, he was out of there.

"My moms said I'm not allowed to get involved in fights with supervillains until I'm twenty-one!"

And he bolted.

Oh s**t he was chasing him.

Oh s**t oh s**t he was fast.

Oh s**t oh s**t oh s**t--

Kamen pushed himself even faster even as he could hear the guy gaining on him. He was not the athletic type, much to his misfortune. This other guy seemed very much to be the athletic type. Just his luck. He was going to get mugged by a clown and a talking cat.

He slowed down, realizing that he was going to be caught by the clown and the talking cat, and then stopped. Kamen looked over his shoulder at the guy and cat chasing him. And then bolted to the side.

Kamen could feel his lungs and legs already burning, but he wasn't about to stop for the glowstick brigade. He just had to get somewhere where there was more people around. A more crowded location! It was harder to get abducted or mugged in a crowded location!

Was he supposed to weave or something?!

Or was that with alligators?

He was pretty sure it wasn't with alligators!

Kamen was, however, pretty sure of the area he was in, and he knew that there was a shortcut to that more crowded locale he was looking for. A passthrough, an alley just over--there! Kamen skidded nearly to a stop to make the corner necessary to fling himself down that alleyway. On the other side of the alleyway was a main thoroughfare, and it should let him out close to a bus--

Kamen skidded fully to a stop as he rounded the corner to take the alley. By the time he stopped, he was several paces down and looking up at way, way too many eyes and just as many too many teeth.

Oh. He went to take a step back. It grinned, salivated, and took a step toward him. He took another step back. It took another step forward. Back. Forward. Back. Forward.

He whirled back to the clown and the cat. "Give me whatever it is!"

He wished she would talk faster. If she was going to be a talking cat, she needed to be a faster talking cat. He snatched the pen out of the air and was repeating, "Ran Power, Make-up," as soon as he could parse the words. Yes they sounded ridiculous, but dying by a B-movie horror would also be ridiculous. It would be stupid, and Kamen wasn't here for it.

A moment later, he stood in front of the monster in a white leotard and a long skirt. The gloves were an interesting touch, and Kamen--or, Ran--appreciated the sneakers. But he didn't have much time to contemplate the sneakers. He'd think about them later. For now, he had to do something about, and he quoted, 'Drooly McEyesface.'

Eloquent for a talking cat, ignoring the fact that Ran didn't really have anything to compare her to.

"Okay, now what? You mentioned magic?" Ran refused to look away from the monster, taking another step back. Hopefully the cat--and the clown with her--had a clue for that, too.

Hopefully before he got eaten--

He stopped in his tracks to stare at her incredulously. "Meeples?" Ran glanced furtively toward the encroaching monster. Nothing. Damn. On the other hand, 'meeples' would've been really embarrassing-- But Token Capture? That... that one sounded better. Sounded right.

Ran whirled back toward the monster, calling out, "Token Capture!" as it approached him. A card appeared in his hand out of nowhere, and he felt the impulse to fling it haphazardly at the monster approaching him. It was just... a playing card? But maybe it was razor-edged or something, something that could do damage--

Or it could open a pothole under the monster as Ran backpedaled....