Okay... I'm back. If anyone cared. See, I'm a freshman in High School right now, been swamped with homework. And I kinda lost everything when my computer broke. I'm only lucky that I'd backed this up on a different location.

Oh, and I kinda forgot to mention that I'm switching between Kats P.O.V and 3rd Person. I'm new at this, so I'm broadening my horizons and checking my other writing skills, if I have any at all. Feel free to critique me for anything at all. As I said, I'm still very new to this. If I made any little mistakes, please forgive me. Its 11pm on a Monday, I have school tomorrow, and my brother is having health problems right now. I'm writing to keep my mind off of that.

All this said, please enjoy.

Woke Up This Morning

*3rd Person*

-Later That Morning-

Tom awoke with a start, breathing heavily. His hands clutched empty air, a scream clogging his dry throat. The dream, that one dream you always have and can never get rid of, had been flashing through his mind for weeks now. It was always the same thing. His sisters, Sam and little Alice, would be burning and screaming, crying out for him to save them. Danny would be running from the Loup-Garou, trying to get away, but she would always be too slow. Kat would be standing there, laughing and laughing…..

The 19 year old shook his head, for more of a comfort than something that actually worked. Tom was haunted by the dream. It was like he was frozen, suspended in the thick air and completely helpless while his family would be dying. He would plague his own foster sister as their murderer. After watching them all die, he'd suddenly have Kats' switchblade in his hand, the last thing she had left of her real brother. Then, after watching Kat laugh her twisted, evil little laugh, he would get free, and he would stab Kat with her own weapon. Her face would change, back into the real Kat. The Kat that was scared of fire and bullets, the Kat that couldn't hold a finger to Alice or Ryan. The Kat that trusted them with all her heart and loved them more than she loved herself. She'd look up at him and smile, showing him her bloodstained teeth and laughing as blood clogged her throat. Then she'd fall, and he'd catch her, but she would die before he could call for help. Tom would then be surrounded by ghosts, ghosts of his sisters, of his girlfriend, and of Kat. They'd all ask him one question, "Why?"

That was when he'd wake up, clawing for his family and wanting to scream. He never would scream, though. Screaming would be like showing a weakness to his sisters. All of them, even Kat, thought of Tom as invincible. He would always be there to save them. He saved them all from the fire, saved them from being taken to an orphanage, saved them from the little everyday horrors that came with living in a town like Hopeton. His sisters thought he was a real hero, just like their Kat. Kat herself believed that if he took on a costume, he could do better than she ever could. Tom knew for a fact that he wouldn't do half as good of job as Kat did, with her daily routine of getting chewed up and spit back out.

Thinking of his sister, Tom realized that he had fallen asleep before she came home. He had been meaning to admonish her for getting home late, again. He got home at about 10 P.M at the earliest. It used to be that Kat would get home before him, she'd be the one handing him a sandwich and a glass of water. But lately, Kat had been getting home at three or four in the morning. Tom had tried to yell some sense into her hard head, but so far, she'd either decided to ignore his warnings or she was incapable of getting home earlier. They were all worried about her, especially with her newest scar, courtesy of Loup-Garou's cronies. Alice had started sleeping on the couch, right next to the door, so that she could help Kat out of her rain-filled/blood-soaked clothes. Sam started leaving something more nourishing than their usual dinner out for Kat to consume. Danny was increasingly annoying her about her health, asking all sorts of questions she never asked anyone else. It was just a matter of time before Kat ended up like their parents.

'No,' Tom thought, 'don't think about them. Just go check on Kat.'

He got up, wincing at the pull of sore muscles in his back and legs. It wasn't the best thing in the world, working at one of the many factories in Hopeton, but it paid the bills and put food on the table. Tom would often hint to Kat that being a hero didn't pay enough, but she never would listen. As the only costume in Hopeton, she had enough press reporting on her and enough people who relied on her that she would never leave them out to dry. Kat lived to help people. She didn't care about money or fame, Kat only cared about keeping people from dying. That was what she did, and nothing but death would stop her.

Tom crept into the living room, expecting to see Kat asleep on the couch with her arms wrapped around Alice. That's how he usually found his sisters. But, to his upmost surprise, Alice was laying on the couch by herself, wrapped instead in her homemade Batman blanket. Either Kat was already up, which was unlikely, or she never came home.

Sighing, Tom looked in the room Alice, Sam, and Kat shared. There was Sam, her dark hair peeking out of her blankets, but the other bed was completely made up. There were no clothes on the ground like there usually was when Kat came home. Listening closely, Tom could tell there was no shower running. Kat never came home last night.

There were few places Kat would ever go without her family. Of those few places, there were only two she would sleep at. That meant she was either at HRMB (Hopeton's Rebels Main Base) or she was in her hideout. At least he could call HRMB and see if she's there with James.

Alice was up when Tom came back into the living room. She startled when he entered, but calmed down when she saw it was him. Her dark eyes had bags under them, signs of her late night. The poor girl was only six years old, far too young to be wondering if her sister would come home alive every night she went out. She looked into Tom's eyes for a minute, and then said, "Kitty never came home, did she?"

Kat, or Kitty to them, always woke Alice up when she came home. It was obvious that she never entered the door. That was just Alice's way of asking, "Did Kitty get hurt?" or "Where's Kitty?" It broke Tom's heart, just as he knew it broke Kats' heart each time she got hurt and Alice worried over her, tears in her big, dark, six-year-old eyes.

"No. She didn't. I'm going to contact the Rebels. You wanna help?" Tom asked, knowing well that his sister could speak the passwords better than he could.

Alice nodded, sliding over enough for her older brother to sit on the couch and pulling the laptop that always sat on the coffee table closer. She started up the program while Tom sat down and made himself as comfortable as possible on their cheap, lumpy couch. The screen went black and an indescribable voice whisper-screamed out of the speakers,

"Các ngày là trẻ."

'Hmm. Vietnamese this time.' Tom thought. He was confident that Alice knew the answer though. She always did.

"Có là làm việc để làm." Alice said, her accent giving away her American background. No one used accents in the Rebel community. It was about results, not how well you did something.

The screen froze for a second, same as it always did on their cheap computer, before revealing James, the Leader of the Rebels. Tom stared for a second, surprised to see his face. James almost never manned the computers; he was always too busy running the Rebel operation. Tom could tell how much of a toll being the Leader was to James. The man was only twenty-four, five years older than Tom himself, but James looked about forty, with the bags under his eyes and the weary, battle-worn expression screaming out of his face.

"Long night, James?" Tom asked, worried for his friend. He almost regretted calling, since the fatigued man looked as if he'd spent a night with the devil.

However, James smiled slightly while answering, "You have no idea. I've been trying to call you guys for about two hours now. Is Kat there with you?"

Tom and Alice both froze.

"She isn't there with you?" Alice asked.

That made James freeze as well, "No. She hasn't stopped by in two days."

Tom jumped up from the couch, leaving Alice at the computer. Alice knew what he was doing, so she said, "Meet us up at Kats' hideout. We'll be there in five."

James nodded, turning to someone off-screen. Alice logged off of the program, running into the room she shared with her sisters. Sam was still halfway asleep, but she rolled her head towards her younger sister.

"Hmm?" Sam mumbled, rubbing her sleep-swollen eyes.

"Go back to sleep, Sammy. Tom and I are going to do something." Alice said, pulling her old sweatpants out of the drawer and grabbing her tennis shoes.

Sam nodded as best she could with her head still on her pillow and fell back asleep. Alice smiled, knowing her older sister needed all the sleep she could get. Anyways, three people were more than enough to check out Kats' lair.

'Well, probably Garth and Lana will end up with us. So, make that five.' Alice thought with a touch of humor. Alice knew both of them well enough to understand that they would pick up on what was happening. They were the best, after all.

Both Tom and Alice were ready to go in two minutes flat, a minute longer than they should've been. Then again, both had just woken up, so they cut themselves some slack. It just made it that much harder to get to Kats' hideout in time.

It took the siblings three more minutes than expected to get to Kats' den, which made it four more minutes than it would've taken Kat to get home. They arrived to see that they had beaten James and whoever he might bring with him. He wasn't far behind, climbing up the broken ladder on the side of the building with Garth and Lana at his heels. No one exchanged greetings, instead focusing on the seemingly abandoned warehouse. It was one of the many abandoned places in Hopeton, this one was probably the least conspicuous, so it made the perfect hiding spot for a safe house.

James walked up to the door, pressing his palm against an apparently normal wall. A light blared out of the wall, running against his hand, another running against his eye when he moved his face towards the wall. There was no awesome voice to announce admission, but they all heard the tell-tale slide of a metal door coming from inside the warehouse. James walked through a dusty old blanket used as a door in the abandoned buildings, followed closely by Tom, Alice, Garth, and Lana.

Inside of Kats' hideout was a mess. Clothes littered the wooden floor, food wrappers and bottles surrounded her dusty computer, the telephone was ringing off the hook, and everything was either covered in a layer of dust or was halfway clean. The wardrobe she'd set up was flung open, the shoes, shirts, and jeans inside were messily put away. The bed on the far side hadn't been made in weeks, there was old, dry blood on the sheets from her many injuries. But, and they all knew this, everything seemed to have a place. Nothing was out of order, nothing was stolen or missing. It looked as if she'd just walked off the face of the earth.

They spread out, looking under, on, in, and around everything. There was nothing to be seen. Everything was in its order. James and Tom paused to look at each other. They were thinking linear, it seemed. Something was wrong.

"Hey, James. Look at this." Lana called from where she was, sitting in front of the giant computer in the center of the room.

Everyone gathered around the computer, which was now flashing a strange warning on it. 'If I'm gone, open this' it said, and there was a file underneath it. There was no name on the file, but nevertheless, James told Lana to click on the file.

The screen went completely black for a second, before a video came up. Kats' solemn face stared out from the massive screen. Though this seemed like she was contacting them, James and Tom could tell that this was recorded long ago. Her brownish/auburnish hair was pointedly longer, reaching her back instead of stopping just above her shoulders. Her skin looked tanner and healthier and there were no dark rings around her eyes. The most significant thing was her expression. She looked guilty and saddened, almost like the day she came back from whatever she'd done when she was eleven. The image stared for another second, then took a breath and started,

"If you're listening to this, then I'm guessing I didn't show up to whatever the hell* you wanted me to show up to. I'm only guessing that James and Tom are there, maybe Garth too. If you're listening to this, then I'm either kidnapped, or dead."

Alice gasped, but there was nothing to be done. The image of Kat kept talking, her voice growing sadder by the second,

"All I can hope for is that I killed that bastard Loup-Garou before I died and/or was taken. If this wasn't the case, then oh well. I guess I have to leave it to Garth and Lana to kill him dead for me."

"When this video is over, an email will pop up. It will prompt you to insert a file. There are two to choose from, one labeled 'Kidnapped' and one labeled 'Dead'. You will have to choose which one to send, depending on my current status. If you want, you can listen to the one you sent afterwards, but not before." At this, Kat smiled crookedly, "Can't have you trying to stop me. The people it is to be sent to are already set up. You'll see the results within two days."

"Well, this is it for me. To whoever's listening, tell Alice, Sammy, Tom, Danny, Lana, Garth, James, Ryan… Hell, tell Ethan and Fallac and whoever knows me that I love them. You'll never hear me say that ever again."

The video ended and another screen popped up. It was just as she said; an email already composed, all they had to do was choose the file. For a second, they all hesitated. There was a chance that she was already dead. For all they knew, her dead body was about to be found in an alley two miles away.

"Hell with this." Garth growled suddenly. He pushed Lana out of the way, double clicked on the file labeled 'Kidnapped', and quickly pressed 'Send' before anyone could stop him. The email immediately went away, and in its place was the folder with both files in it.

Again, they all hesitated. Did they really want to know what Kat had done for them? The line was still ringing in their heads, "Can't have you trying to stop me." Kat was capable of so much, even murder, if it came to it.

"You gonna play it, or what?" It was Alice this time. She had a grip on both James and Toms hands, but she had put on her bravest face for all of them. With a sigh, Lana took the mouse back from Garth and double clicked on 'Kidnapped'

Cliff-hanger! If you hate those as much as I do, then I'm sorry. As I said in the intro, its 11pm on a Monday, I'm tired, and I would like to sleep. Sorry.

*Please note that even though I said Kat doesn't curse, I don't consider Hell as a curse word.

And for all the computer stuff, I have no idea if its possible. I'm no computer nerd.