Slipping in and out of consciousness, Katorasu was unsure of where he was going or who was taking him to that somewhere; the most coherent thing he could hear, as his body felt like it was being moved, was the inaudible sounds of voices discussing with one another. Trying to grasp what had happened earlier tonight, the nephalem faintly remembered how he was taken down after a straight punch to the face— after that, it all became a distant blur to him.
He wasn’t sure how long it’s been since, waking up in an uncomfortable metal chair and in some gloomy room, which was only barely lit by an overhanging lamp.
One thing he was sure about though was how badly his body ached, groaning a bit when he started to move, “Yep, that’s gonna hurt for a bit…” He quietly spoke, as he tried to stretch his limbs due to feeling a bit cramped.
To his surprise though, he felt how his arms and legs were secured in place, as the sound of links of chains moving up against each other rattled its way into his ears. Understandably a bit confused, the nephalem looked over his shoulder, and at the back of the chair, he was then able to see how his hands were up against each other— their wrists collared together by a pair of short handcuffs. Opening up his legs, the same applied to his feet, which were connected by the ankles.
Now, while this wasn’t too big of a deal for the black hedgehog— as he could just shift his form into mist and be free— he wanted to see how things would pan out from here. Still, in his chair, Katorasu tried to figure out where he was as he was decent at deducing things; in his mind, he thought that maybe the cops finally managed to get him, all it took for him to finally be arrested was to be taken down like a chump by somebody else. All this curiosity wasn’t good for a vigilante, it’s a good thing that he’s a hedgehog and not a cat.
Wanting to let the cops make the first move— if they were even there in the first place— Katorasu began to whistle a tune, without seemingly any care in the world. Leaning back in his chair he continued to do so, as the back legs light scratched against the floor of the room. Eventually, his head started to bob up and down, side to side— he was getting a little bored by this point.
Taking glances around the room, he took note of how there were no convenient vents that he could slip on through with his mist form; the only door out seemed to be airtight as well.
“So, I’m gonna take a guess and say that I’m in some kind of interrogation room,” He mused aloud, intentionally trying to call out anyone out there, “I didn’t think it’d look like how the shows do it!” Turning to his left and his right, Kato chuckled a bit before jokingly asking, “Hey! You guys got those one-sided windows too? Where ya at? How about… over here!” The vigilante intently leaned towards one of the lengthier walls, the one to his left.
Despite having a 50/50 chance of choosing the correct wall, Katorasu had picked the wrong one to look at with a dumb smile on his face. To his right, a group of officers watched his antics through the one-way window that he had called out prior.
“This is the guy that we’re so worried about?” One officer spoke, tilting her head at the nephalem they had finally managed to get into one room.
Another officer nodded, a hand on his belt, “In just a couple of months, he nearly destabilized the peace in Station Square.”
“Right, GUN would’ve had all of our asses on a plate if we let him keep going,” Piped up a member of the police force, you could almost hear the relief in his voice, “Now all we have to worry about is how we’re gonna explain all the shooting, again.”
From the back, another officer questioned aloud the nature of the locked-up emerald-streaked hedgehog, “We’ve never seen anyone like him before, right? His powers aren’t recorded as any matching type in our files, is he unique or something?”
Katorasu, unaware of the group discussion taking place, started to get a little agitated with being locked in chains and trapped inside such a small room. Figuring he could at least use a stretch or two, the black hedgehog quickly shifted into mist and back again, both pairs of handcuffs clattered as they now held nothing in their grasp— and this was all done in front of the onlooking officers, who were bewildered by his audacity. Now free of his bonds, Katorasu casually sat up from his chair and stretched his arms upward, his captors were unsure of how to respond, with only one of them remaining unimpressed by him.
“Man, that chair sucks to sit in! I thought torture was only just a medieval thing, is that how you guys get the baddies to talk?” Kato asked, looking around the room some more after he had finished his brief stretching, “Speaking of talking, are we gonna get to that, or am I just gonna stand around in this room, talking to myself like some looney?”
Making her way out of the back, a semi-short woman— who appeared to be the no-nonsense type— made her way towards the door that led into the interrogation room. From Katorasu’s perspective, he watched as the only entrance to the room had opened, briefly providing some more light to the inside, as the figure stepped through the opened door. To his surprise, it was a guinea pig that wore a much more different uniform than what he had seen the other officers wear.
Before the nephalem could get a word out, the shorter Möbian— who had a sharp tone to her voice— commanded, “Sit back down in that chair.”
His eyes looked over to the right wall as if he knew that there was a group of people watching him get ordered around, “Uh— Yes, ma’am,” Katorasu responded, quickly placing his butt on the cold seat again.
Looking up a fair bit at her, he found it a bit funny that she was taller than his landlord— other than her height, he focused on the unique badge pinned to her uniform that read, “Chief of Police.” Kato had to admit, he was a bit honored to have a higher-rank be the one to ask him questions, rather than a standard police officer.
Placing a hand on the surface of the table, the Chief of Police leaned forward as she stood on the other end, it felt like the woman was now staring into the very soul of Katorasu, “There’s a lot of questions I got for you, but let’s get to the most important one first: What were you doing in that warehouse? Before we found you unconscious.”
Despite wanting to look away from those daggers that were her eyes, the vigilante held his head forward as he responded, “A lieutenant from the Giustiza Family lured me in with some of his men, he tried to offer me a deal— saying that if I just look the other way occasionally, I’d get paid each month in cash after a starting offer; he even told me that I could still be a hero, just not always anymore.”
“Well, that explains the briefcase full of money that we found,” She remarked, looking to her side for a moment before returning her gaze to Katorasu, “I assume that the offer didn’t take? Judging by the number of spent shell casings, bullet holes, reports of gunfire, signs of struggle, and you on the floor unconscious.” The Chief of Police asked, her eyes narrowed on his free hands for a moment. It was a gamble to trust him, yes, but she figured that the hedgehog wouldn’t dare harm her, much less threatening, as it wasn’t part of his MO.
With a sheepish chuckle, Katorasu leaned back in his chair as he replied, “You could offer me a million bucks, a high-five, and a mansion, and it still wouldn’t work on me; I’m not going to just stand by and let people get hurt, that’s not gonna sit well in my conscious.”
While understanding that shared sentiment, the high-ranking officer could not just excuse an illegal vigilante because he meant well. Who doesn’t nowadays anyway?
“Altruistic, I’ll give you points for that. However, have you ever stopped and think about how acting in place of the police may end up worsening the situation?” She asked, her somewhat stern expression remaining on her face.
“Believe me, there’s not a single night that I don’t think about that,” He responded, speaking from the heart, “I can’t help but also think that if I don’t act— or even the more slower I act— that it’s going to get worse still,” Katorasu sat properly now, his elbows propped on the table, “These guys were coming to Station Square, regardless if I was a hero or not. If anything though, I only made it worse on myself; their lieutenant threatened me by saying how he’ll take everything from me before killing me as if that’ll ever happen.”
“You got a family to worry about? Any loved ones?” She asked, her tone softened by just a little bit as this rogue Möbian managed to get some respect out of her.
Katorasu’s mind immediately thought about Jamie, but he couldn’t admit— not even to the police— that he had any sort of relation to anyone, “Nah, I wouldn’t be doing all this crazy stuff if someone I cared about had a chance of getting hurt; I’m reckless only about myself.”
“So why are you doing this? It’s more than just seeing the bad in the city, it’s always more than that. Why are you going through so much trouble for this?” She questioned, making herself come off cold as to cut off any sense of sympathy from forming.
Treating this as more of a therapy session rather than an interrogation, the hero slouched forward in his seat with a sigh, “Did you ever do something that you felt terrible about and no matter what you do, you still feel like crap for it? It feels like you owe something to someone, but you’re not sure who it is, yet it’s just a debt that keeps getting bigger each day…” He paused momentarily, thinking about what Giudice had said to him before they engaged in a fight, “I guess, in a way, I’m doing this just for myself, so I could feel better whenever I rescue somebody or knock out a couple of bad guys; trust me, I love helping people out but deep down I know I’m just being selfish out there.”
The Chief of Police couldn’t help but lightly shake her head, “You would’ve made a good cop, with all that motivation you’ve got.” She incidentally dropped the hard exterior.
A sad, soft chuckle came from the nephalem, “I thought about it, too bad you need an ID for the application process, that and no powers I’m pretty sure.”
Interested by that response, the female guinea pig was still curious about one last thing, “I’ve got one question left for you: You easily got out of your handcuffs, so why haven’t you attempted to escape yet?”
A bit puzzled by that himself, Katorasu simply shrugged and said, “I dunno, maybe I figured I could try and explain myself to you guys, so you could let me go and deal with the Giustiza Family myself?” He sounded rather hopeful with that.
“I’m sorry, but we all swore an oath on behalf of GUN that we wouldn’t allow any heroes to operate within Station Square,” There was a dash of solemness in her response, “We’re keeping you here in the station, at least until we resolve the situation with the mob.”
While the nephalem was hopeful, he also kept a realistic expectation of the outcome, “Yeah, I figured as much,” Katorasu quietly said, looking down past the edge of the table and at his feet, which had been slowly dissipating into mist.
Just as a precaution, the ebony rogue had been preparing a trick that was up his sleeve; it was a bit of a gambling move, but there was no other option to getting out of this room. While he could take the key— if there were any on her— from the woman, he didn’t want to make his reputation with the police even worse than it was currently.
Before he could make his daring escape, the captured vigilante wanted to be sure about something first, “Hey, if I’m going to be locked up in here, mind telling me where my sword is at? It means a lot to me, and I’d appreciate it if you guys kept it in a nice place while I’m here,” Kato smiled, a bit too innocently at the guinea pig though, as he hoped that he would get a clear answer.
With a raised eyebrow, and a hand of hers traveling down to her waist just a bit, the Chief of Police answered, “In the evidence room, though I wouldn’t be surprised if it was left somewhere else considering how I found a few of my men playing with it.” She eyed him some more, feeling that this hedgehog was up to something.
“Thanks, that’s going to make the next couple of minutes easier on me!” He smiled widely, chipper as can be, as his body was quickly transformed into a mist with his head being the last of it to turn.
“W-what?! How?!” The Chief of Police exclaimed, instinctively reaching for her belt for her taser as she watched Katorasu completely disappear. She knew about the mist form but was fully confident that he couldn’t escape the room through it.
As the group outside watched, a few of them peered close through the window to see if he was still in there somewhere. From behind them all, however, a cloud of mist formed close to the ceiling of the hallway, growing to the size of an average Möbian hedgehog; once it had reached full size, it reformed into the infamous vigilante himself.
Whatever sense of coolness the nephalem felt he had gained was quickly lost when he realized something, he was parallel with the floor down below and not at all on his feet. His eyes widened and his weight shifted rather queasily, as Katorasu blurted out, “Oh boy—!” He was interrupted by the force of his entire front slamming into the tiled floor, it was then that the hedgehog was reminded how badly his body ached from the fight hours ago.
Lifting his face from the ground, he looked up at the bewildered officers before hopping up onto his feet. Dusting himself off quickly, Katorasu embarrassingly proclaimed, “Ta-Da! Magic trick!”
Without hesitation, the cops in the very front of the group drew their tasers and fired at the vigilante swordsman in this tight corridor. With some quick thinking and reaction, the nephalem grabbed his coat and held it in front of his body, to act as a shield against the electrical prongs. Much to Katorasu’s favor, his pseudo-defense managed to hold off the attacks as the prongs slammed and pierced little holes into the outerwear. Pulling his coat back, the prongs released their grip as the hero donned the piece of clothing again.
Heading down the hallway and out into a more open room full of desks and whatnot, Katorasu hoped that all of the cops within the station were behind him. He didn’t feel like punching a cop, it doesn’t sound like a very hero thing to do in the first place anyway. Glancing around the room, his golden eyes landed on a series of signs that had a general direction of where a certain room could be found if followed. After a few more frantic searches, he found a hall with a sign, pointing towards the inside of it, with the word “Evidence” written on it.
As the stampede of police officers drew closer to Kato, he hurried his pace, running past door after door in the hallway he rushed down. His eyes were focused on the signs above each door that passed him on his left and his right, the vigilante quietly read aloud the text on all the various signs there were.
Passing by a few more doors, his eyes lit up with excitement as they read “Evidence” on a sign placed above another closed door, near the end of the hall. Stopping on a dime, Katorasu ecstatically wrapped his fingers around the knob of the door and twisted it, he just couldn’t wait to be reunited with his sword, Ekibyō.
Sadly though, the knob didn’t turn. “Oh son of a…” Katorasu huffed out in annoyance, as he could hear the cops growing closer to him. It didn’t matter if he kept jiggling the doorknob, pushing or pulling on the door, even giving it a little kick— it simply wouldn’t open for him.
From around the corner, two more officers appeared though the pair seemed to be rather calm confronting the hedgehog. One of them reached into his pocket, withdrawing a keyring, sifting through it to find a specific one.
“You’re not getting in.” One spoke, as his partner now held the keyring in the palm and the exact key— needed for the door— in between his thumb and index finger.
Turning his head, Katorasu was met with the sight of the two officers, the ones that he had inadvertently ended up rescuing a couple of nights ago. Before he could let out a sigh that conveyed his reluctance, the brown wolf officer tossed him the key necessary to get into the evidence room.
“Not without this,” Joey said when he tossed the key, “Hurry up, I’m pretty sure we’ve only got a bit before they catch us helping you out,” the brown wolf had urged the black hedgehog to get moving as his partner looked behind them, just in case a lone coworker was spying on them.
A bit shocked by their help, Katorasu looked up from the key and at the pair, “Why are you helping me out? Can’t you lose your jobs for this?” The nephalem asked, quickly inserting the key into the lock of the door and turning it with a click.
“Sucks to say this,” Sal answered like he was speaking heresy of the highest form, “You’re doing good work out there, maybe things are about to get more dangerous because of you,” the buck continued, as Katorasu quickly entered the evidence room and searched for his sword, “But I’d rather have things become worse before they get better than have Station Square end up like Emerald City.”
With a breath of relief, the vigilante found the sword that had been by his side since the beginning— thankfully, the police had placed it back inside of its proper sheath. As Katorasu wrapped the strap of the holster over his head and onto his shoulder, he stepped out with a strong sense of confidence from being reunited with the blade he felt was a part of him.
“That and since you did ruffle everybody up,” The brown wolf added on to what his partner told Kato, he was a bit anxious as he could hear their Chief, ordering everyone to spread out from down the hall, “It’s only fair that you fix this whole thing yourself— plus, we owe you one, so don’t get caught again ‘cause we won’t help you next time.”
The ebony rogue nodded his head, before a thought cropped up in his head, “Wait, why were you guys here and not with everybody else?” Katorasu had asked, as he was just about to try and find the nearest vent that led out of this place.
Rolling his eyes, Sal quickly grabbed the key from Katorasu as he answered him, “Because our boss put us here, we were supposed to guard the evidence room in case you escaped somehow… and obviously that's exactly what happened.” The buck finished, as he placed the key back on the ring with the others.
“Now get going! Our buddies are almost here, so haul your ass out of here, while we figure out where we’re going to be when they get here.” Joey urged the nephalem, who was more than happy to start bolting.
Quickly looking back, Katorasu saw how the pair of officers were practicing injured stances as if they were recovering from a hit or two. Despite how he never laid a finger on anybody, it looked like it would end up looking like that, even though he never did.
Sliding around the corner after reaching the end of the hall, the nephalem was now ecstatic having just spotted a nice little vent up on the wall and close to the ceiling. Shifting into mist, he quickly traveled up into the vent covering and found himself in a corridor of tiny hallways that lead everywhere throughout the police station. Wanting to get out of dodge as soon as possible, the previously detained vigilante picked a random direction and swirled his way through it.
Popping out between the slits of a vent covering, after a fair bit of venturing through the ducts, Katorasu found himself in a room that held several cops who searched the area. Even though he was pretty untouchable— for now, at least— he didn’t want to garner any attention towards himself. Backing up into the vents, he did notice how just to his left was the entrance room, which meant…
Shooting back down the vents, he traveled down the metal corridor that went into the direction of the main entrance and, hopefully, to the outside. Katorasu could feel as this form was getting closer to breaking, he only hoped that the covering up ahead was the one needed to get out of this place— otherwise, he would be stuck in the vents with no escape, at least until the form recharged again, though it was more likely that the cops would find him nearly crushed in the vents.
Thankfully, as he unwillingly turned back into his normal self, he blasted out of the correct vent and out into the open world. Despite having changed forms, he still carried the same momentum and slapped into the outside wall of a building next to the police department. Tonight was a night just filled with tons of blunt force pain.
“… ouch…” Katorasu had let out, doing more than just wincing at the jolt of pain. In his head, he very much so regretted not taking the time to heal up all the bruises.
Peeling off of the wall rather comically, the nephalem landed on a pile of trash bags that were inconveniently sitting right below him. Lately, things have not been going well for the emerald-streaked hedgehog’s clothes so far, at this point he’d rather go to a public laundromat and wash his outfit himself than possibly piss off Jamie and add more to his workload.
Pushing himself off of the load of garbage that cushioned his fall, Katorasu dusted off the grime on his pants before starting to make his way to the end of the alley. In his head, he thought about how things would be harder from here on out, though he knew that it would all be worth it if he could just pull this hero thing off. All he needed was a public takedown of the Giustiza family’s operations in Station Square, then hopefully he could be left alone to just hero things up.
With a leap into the air, the nephalem puffed into mist and flew through the night sky, not knowing that the next act of his story would be a bumpy one.
