Sidestep

This story came about from one small scene within that made me laugh and it grew from there. The male lead  can also be found in "Utterly Unexpected" and two of the supporting characters have a small scene in "A Beautiful Life."

People had been disappearing for weeks, but no one thought anything of it. For a town full of heroic people, the small population was fairly oblivious to the world outside the city limits; usually do to the constant barrage of attacks and misadventures. It wasn’t until sweet little Yuki was kidnapped and her bighearted oaf of a boyfriend returned in a craze that anyone bothered to take notice.

“We were coming out of the ice cream shop when this creepy old man with these buggy eyes and wild mad scientist hair came up to us and started hitting on Yuki! I told him to back off ‘cause she’s my girl but he didn’t even look at me,” a jabbering Kazuya explained, wildly throwing his arms around. “Just as I’m about to grab him, the little skeezoid throws this stuff on me. I was spitting it out ‘cause it got in my mouth when all these cats started showing up and attacking me! I love cats because their cute an’ fluffy an’ sound like little motors but not when dozens of them are clawing all over my face and body trying to eat me.”

A choking snort of laughter escaped the dark haired woman next to him as she pressed a hand to her mouth. Green eyes met her blue with a slight headshake of warning, looking pointedly at the short figure standing behind Kazuya with a tangible feeling of malice.

“Kazuya, by chance, did he throw catnip on you?” a slightly older man with red hair asked.

“That’s it!” the orange haired youth screeched. “All those cats were attracted to the catnip. There’s not a feline alive who hates me.”

Patience snapping the murderous figure whirled Kazuya around, grabbed the front of his shirt, and shook the taller man, snarling, “What happened to Yuki, you worthless waste of space?”

“The guy took her,” he yelped, teeth rattling in his head.

“Why didn’t you protect her?” the shorter man hissed, hands itching to rise a few inches and strangle the life out of the dimwit.

“I was trying to get the cats off without hurting them!”

“That’s enough Hector,” the redhead interjected, putting a hand on his furious friend’s shoulder. “The important thing right now is rescuing Yuki.”

“Fine,” Hector bit off, dropping Kazuya.

“Can you find her?” the green-eyed Autumn asked.

Silence as Hector closed his eyes searching for Yuki’s aura. It was a closely guarded secret, kept even from Yuki, that Hector was her brother. In order to keep an eye on his beloved little sister he’d found a way to locate her so he could watch over her from time to time.

Red eyes snapped open.

“I’ve found her,” he said already on the move, “the fool didn’t even bother to hide his location.”

A short time later Hector and the dark haired woman, Julie, slipped in a back window of a rundown house. Split into two groups for a faster search, the four people silently snuck through the building leaving an earnest and unaware Kazuya to storm the front door in a flurry of love proclamations and screams for “the bug-eyed skeezoid weirdo to come out and fight like a man!”

So far they’d found nothing but cats. Dozens of cats. In every room they entered. Bedroom after bedroom with a bed, closet, dresser and piteously mewing cats in all colors and sizes.

A terrible feeling crawling up her spine Julie asked Hector, “Do you think these are the missing people?”

“Hn,” he grunted, “I don’t care.”

“But what if Yuki’s a cat?”

Hector paused, glaring at her over his shoulder.

“Then it better be reversible,” he said ominously, “for his sake.”

“This is a waste of time,” Hector announced ten minutes later as they entered a bedroom just like the others, this one surprisingly lacking cats. The loud hollers of Kazuya had died down and there was still no sign of Yuki.

“What do you propose?” Julie asked, checking the closet for people or secret compartments.

“We find the man responsible and make him talk,” he hissed darkly, hand clenched in a fist.

“Sounds like a plan.”

Thunderous footsteps echoed down the hall as a mad yowl filled the air. Had they been discovered? Sharing a glance the two took on fighting stances, Hector crouched slightly before Julie, prepared for the worst as the door crashed open.

Suddenly Hector dodged to the right, Julie automatically tracked his movement, looking for danger. She realized, too late, as her head whipped around that their attacker was barreling towards her in a big orange blur. Wheezing in surprised pain as a cannonball weight slammed into her chest, Julie rocked back, tipping as her hands clamped around her thrashing attacker.

‘Is that fur?’ she thought just before stars exploded behind her eyes.

Hector blinked, slightly widened eyes showing surprise as his friend crumpled gracelessly to the ground after cracking her head on the dresser. Moving to the door he hesitated, looked back at the helpless girl, and scowled. All that mattered was finding Yuki, and yet…Closing the door with a snarl he stomped back to Julie, fully intending to slap her awake.

The orange attacker gave a pathetic meow, unable to get free from the unconscious girl’s grip. Reaching down Hector grabbed the cat by the scruff of its neck, yanking it up with a death glare. Human or not the fuzzball cause of this unwanted delay was going up in flames. The cat purred in happiness followed by a tiny mew, as an unbelieving Hector met very familiar eyes. Dark satisfaction spread through his veins as Hector gave a low chuckle, and the orange cat trembled.

“Urgh. I’m dead,” Julie groaned, her skull throbbing. Cracking open her eyes she saw Hector standing next to the door smirking. “And in hell.”

“You only wish you were that lucky,” he goaded, wicked satisfaction gleaming in his eyes. “A cat knocked you out.”

“I was knocked out by a dresser!” Julie hissed through grit teeth as another wave of pain radiated through her head. “Besides, if you hadn’t dodged it never would have hit me. Though, at your height it probably would’ve gotten you in the face.”

“If I didn’t move Kazuya would be dead,” he snarled, resting a hand on the sword at his hip. “Would you prefer him in sixty or seventy pieces?”

“Oh, blah, blah, blah. You’re super fast and I’m not,” Julie huffed carefully standing up. “Y’know I may have gotten hit by the cat but you ran from it.”

Hector’s eyes widened in surprised outrage before narrowing into furious slits, “I never ran.”

“You sure hightailed it out of the way when you saw the cat coming.”

“I sidestepped. Something any third rate amateur should have been able to do.”

“You jerk! If you hadn’t distracted me I would have been fine.”

“You should have been aware of your surroundings.”

“How was I supposed to know a cat of all things would be able to hit like a linebacker?” Julie snarled, before she paused, looking at Hector in confusion. “Wait. Did you say Kazuya?”

Irritation melted into a smug expression as Hector arched an eyebrow. “Displaying your amazing observational skills once again,” he mocked, enjoying her embarrassed annoyance.

“Because I’m sure you realized it was Kazuya the moment he came through the door,” Julie grumbled looking around. “What did you do with him?”

Crimson eyes glowed in unholy pleasure as they flicked down before locking on suspicious blue. Lowering her eyes, Julie bit back a surprised laugh. Kazuya, now a large orange cannonball of a tabby, was wedged under Hector’s boot, the ends of his singed fur still smoking. Large terrified brown eyes met hers, silently begging for rescue.

Julie considered him with half-lidded eyes, head tilting as she gave Kazuya Cat a lopsided smile.

“You gave me a concussion, so I’m not really inclined to stop Hector,” she announced with little sympathy. “All things considered, be happy he didn’t kill you.”

“The idiot did manage to do something right,” Hector said, carefully pulling aside his cloak to reveal a white, crimson eyed, kitten curled safely in his arm.

Eyes rounding in surprise, Julie stepped closer, leaning down to inspect a familiar red ribbon tied around the kitten’s neck. “Hello Yuki.”

“Now that we have what we came for, let’s finish this,” Hector suggested, eager to find the man responsible for harming his sister.

Julie nodded in agreement and they turned to leave. Freed from the pressure of Hector’s foot, Kazuya Cat’s long wheeze of gratitude turned into a sharp yowl of panic as the door burst in a shower of wood. Curled around Yuki for protection Hector jumped back, stumbled, and barely avoided a fall. Eyes widened in furious surprise locked on the howling orange tabby clinging to his foot.

“Get off me you fool,” he snarled, swinging his foot towards the wall as a shower of dust fell over him.

Standing in the doorway was by far one of the ugliest men Julie had ever had the misfortune of seeing. And she spent the majority of her time fighting creatures from the deepest darkest pits of the abyss. His bug eyes roved in different directions, independent of each other, as he chanted with a mouth full of brown rotted teeth, and the putrid stench rolling off of him suffocated the room. Lowering the arm she’d thrown in front of her face when the door exploded, Julie heard her companion growl, the sound drawing their attacker’s attention. Not wasting time she crossed the room in two steps, reared back, and sucker punched the crazed man. He fell back in a daze and she followed with a hard right cross, smiling in grim satisfaction as his jaw gave way with an ominous crack!

 Leaving the unconscious man she entered the bedroom looking for her friends. There was Kazuya Cat helping the little Yuki kitten out of the tangled pool of Hector’s cloak on the floor. But where was Hector? The cloak twitched, followed by a furious hiss.

“No way,” Julie murmured crouching down to lift the fabric. Glaring at her from underneath the cloth was a black, crimson eyed kitten with a familiar white star pattern on its fur. Biting her lip to keep back a chuckle, Julie couldn’t quiet hide her amusement as she asked, “Hector?”

A low rumbling growl emerged from deep in the kitten’s throat, his entire body vibrating with rage. Alarmed, Julie leaned back as Kitten Hector pounced, watching in wide-eyed wonder as the ferocious feline mauled the larger Kazuya Cat. Reaching over she scooped up the fretting Yuki, absentmindedly scratching behind the other girl’s ears as orange fur began to fly. Tipping her head to the side Julie scoffed, "Sidestep, huh?”

Hours later everyone was back to normal and returned to their rightful places, the creepy Catman turned over to the proper otherworld authorities.

“How did you manage to convince him to tell you how to reverse the spell?” Autumn asked her red-haired boyfriend.

“We merely had a conversation about what would be in his best interest,” he calmly replied, smiling politely at his friends as they shared a universal feeling of ominous foreboding.

As the conversation carried on Julie slipped closer to Hector, drawing his attention with a tap on the shoulder as she leaned in.

“Listen here kitty-cat,” she said softly, ignoring the dark look he gave her. “I think our problems today weren’t so much our fault, as Kazuya’s, and the only reasonable thing to do now is get revenge. Agreed?”

“Agreed,” Hector replied with a malevolent smirk.

“Oh, Kazuyaaaa!” Julie sang as they moved towards the bruised teen.

“Hey guys, what’s uuuaaaagh!”