Chapter 5 - Hey Big Sis

Vic

"Wait a minute wait a minute, you overhead Cassie say that? Like that whole speech?" Uncle Fujin asked me a few days after my birthday. I nodded. He had been out for the last few days and I decided to lay low until he returned. Got some guitar practice in though. I just told him about what I overheard Cassie say to my headstone. I myself had been at the cemetery celebrating part of my birthday with my parents. I brought a sandwich (a good one this time) and a few sodas and just sat there at their graves talking to them about life. I just finished the last of the sodas when I had heard Kimi and Kurtis show up followed by Cassie a few minutes later. I straight up heard her say that she still loved me and was never truly mad at me while I hid in the shadows. Well, I mean that did make me feel great on one hand. On the other hand, I had been AWOL for about ten years and never bothered to tell or show her that I was alive until recently. Well…you know what I mean when I say that right?

"Yeah," I said. "Like I'm not kidding. Then she heard me step on a twig as I was about to leave."

"I assume you had a conversation with her afterwards?" Uncle Fujin asked as he started to practice his strikes on a wooden dummy. I followed suit. My strikes were fast and accurate and it felt second nature at this point.

"Again, yes," I answered.

"Well, what did you tell her?" Uncle Fujin asked. "Your identity?" I shook my head. He frowned a little.

"Just reassured her I was her friend. Shaking her hand was a little difficult but I think I pulled it off without her knowing it was me," I responded. I accidentally punched the head off the wooden dummy and it went flying across the small practice dojo Uncle Fujin had set up in the basement of his house. I walked over to pick it up.

"I assumed she introduced herself to you if you shook her hand," Uncle Fujin asked as I reattached the dummy's head and continued my striking practice.

"Yeah…but then I did a huge goof," I admitted. I had realized it as soon as I walked into my bedroom that night and unwrapped Uncle Fujin's gift to me, which were two albums from my favorite bands. In vinyl mind you. They were Megadeth's Rust in Peace (my all time favorite) and the Disturbed album I was missing from my collection, Asylum. Anyway, back to the bonehead move I realized I made.

"And that was?" Uncle Fujin inquired. "Other than wearing sunglasses at night I mean." Fuckin get a load of this guy with his jokes.

"Well, as I left, I called her Miss Cage," I said. Uncle Fujin stopped practicing his strikes and looked at me for a few seconds. Then he pinched the bridge of his nose with one hand while giving me the "roast hand" with the other. Huh…he really does know how people my age act.

"Yeah I know," I muttered and kicked the head off of the dummy again. "But it just slipped out."

"The way I see it, this could lead to one of two scenarios," Uncle Fujin said, picked up the dummy's head and tossed it to me. "One, Miss Cage puts the pieces together and realizes who you are on her own."

"And…the other one," I asked genuinely curious because I myself only thought of the first one.

"She believes that she has a vigilante stalker and alerts the authorities," he said.

I gulped. That was the absolute last thing I needed right now. Right after I had come across an online blog documenting my escapades on the news last night before I fell asleep. After scrolling though it a little, I realized that I had been spotted by people more times than I thought in the past. Low quality videos but still, I had quite the online fanbase! Comments that I read were stuff like "This dude is so cool!" and "I was saved by him actually, here's what happened…" and even "If he happens to be a cute guy under that supposed mask, I will marry him. I swear to GOD."

"Actually, speaking of authorities," Uncle Fujin said and pulled something out of his pocket. It was the note I had written to Kimi. "A very hysterical DEA agent came to me earlier and shoved this in my hand. She believes that I know the vigilante because, of course, she knows about my own abilities and you share some of them. I believe her exact words were 'Uncle. Tell me. Do you know him? Because he can apparently do what you do and he seems to know about mom's tattoo. If he was behind Vic's death, I will kill him.' I would get to telling Kimi sooner rather than later. I do not want to bear witness to her reaction if she accidently harms her buddy."

Later that Night.

Here I was standing on a roof playing with an air constructed knife while waiting for something to happen. Still figuring out how to tell Kimi now that she got Uncle Fujin involved. If you ask me, I think it really would be better if I just revealed myself to her outright. Well, privately actually. Like just the two of us on a rooftop somewhere. I tossed the knife in the air and caught it a few times telling the wind to inform me of any demonic presence. Nothing…but something resembling a demonic presence was making itself known. I looked down in the direction of it and saw two figures engaged in conversation a few buildings over. I silently approached before one of them pulled a knife out and stabbed the other guy multiple times. He ran off shortly afterwards. By the time I fully arrived on the scene, the stabbing victim was dead. Shame. He was very young and extremely malnourished. If you asked me, this was a drug deal gone wrong. I looked around the immediate area before I decided to search the dead guy for anything useful. A wallet with no money in it, an ID card, a pack of smokes, a pipe and a folded piece of paper. I unfolded it and read the small note written on it. "Alleyway on Fourth street and Spring. Have it all. Klaus will not ask again." There was a drawing of a smoking skull stamped on it too. Fuck. I think I've heard of this guy before. Big drug dealer in the area. But I needed to make sure…and I needed to commit the biggest felony of all time in order to learn more information. Kimi, it's time for an impromptu "Bring Your Brother to Work Day."

I arrived at the DEA building where Kimi worked within twenty minutes of leaving the prior crime scene. I left a message to the police reporting the dead body as Thrash thought so that was fun. Guy on the other line freaked the fuck out when he heard me speak. Although, the police might be blaming me for that druggie's murder even if it didn't match my MO. Anyway, back to my infiltration plan. What I have gathered over the years is that Kimi's office is on an upper floor. Problem was…this was a three story building with multiple windows. Plus it was brightly lit. Shit. Whatever, let's figure out which one of these windows is Kimi's office. I held my hand out and told the wind to search for someone close to me. The wind responded and instructed me that Kimi's office was on the second story, about three windows from the right. Perfect! Now I just need a way to get over there without being seen. Could go with the basic diversion tactic but even that had its drawbacks. I could go in through the roof…damn…I'm gonna have to. I took a few steps backwards, readied myself internally and sprinted towards the edge of the building. I rocketed into the air with the assistance of the wind. Well over the brightly lit street and onto the roof of the DEA building. Nice! Phase one complete! Now, I needed to get to Kimi's office.

I walked over to the roof access door and tugged on the handle. Locked. Of course. No matter! I made a highly pressurized stream of air come out of my finger and inserted it into the crack of the door. I heard and felt the air cut through the deadbolt and I pulled the door open silently. I closed it behind me and started making my way down the stairs while straining my ears for any guards or other DEA agents. I eventually came upon the door for the second floor and I used my sensing ability to see who was behind it. It responded. And I didn't like it. Kimi was the only one there. Right on the other side of the door actually. Great. Cursing myself for what I was about to do, I jiggled the door a little bit and heard Kimi go "What the?" She opened the door, and I quickly slipped behind her after karate chopping her in the neck which knocked her out immediately. I used the wind to slowly bring her body to the ground and slipped another card into her pocket that read "THANK YOU FOR THE INFORMATION." I quickly made my way to the door labeled "Agent Kimi C. Harris" and tried the handle. Locked. Great. Back to my unconscious sister so I could frisk her. She was still very much out cold and I could see her chest rise and fall with every breath. I reached into one of her jacket pockets and pulled out her keys. As I expected. Each color coded. Green for her house (probably because of me) and red for work. Just like when we were kids. I slipped the red key into the lock on the office door and turned. The lock disengaged and I smiled under my mask. Classic Kimi.

First things first, I locked the door and pulled the blinds shut. I didn't even turn on the light. Kimi's office was like I expected. Incredibly organized right down to the slightest detail. Like I'm almost surprised there weren't multiple hooks on the wall each labeled a different day of the week. I walked over to the desk and booted up the computer. On Kimi's desk were a few photographs. One of her and Kurtis, another of her on college graduation and then…one with a very young me being held by her. My eyes lingered on the photograph for a few moments and I picked it up to study it more closely. The back was labeled "Me and my little Buddy." That was me for ya big sis. Your little buddy. The computer finished its start-up and it was asking for a password. I looked at the screen for a few seconds before trying her anniversary with Kurtis which was April fifteenth. They had been together since I was sixteen-ish and I'm extremely surprised he hadn't popped the question to her yet. Might be because of, you know, the fact that she lost pretty much her entire family. As I expected, the password worked and I had access to the whole of the DEA's database. I pulled up a search bar and typed in Klaus. A mugshot of a middle aged man appeared on the screen with that smoking skull tattooed on his neck. Bingo! Gotcha! Any leads on your whereabouts? Let's see…last known location…warehouse district? Wasn't I just over there? Damn!

While cursing my luck, I heard something that made my heart skip multiple beats. The door to the office was being unlocked. But how?! I had the keys in here! I planned to put them back on Kimi's person before I left! Before I could do anything else, the door swung open and I saw Kurtis standing there looking into the office. Oh he saw me alright. Partly because he flicked the light on as I stood there frozen in fear. I saw him blink once and then…his eyes widened in recognition…not because he saw Thrash…because I was standing there in bright lights not doing the Rattlehead disguise. Oh boy…

"What the…" Kurtis began before someone behind him yelled "HEY YOU! FREEZE!" I of course did not. I made for the window. Right when I got to it, gunshots started going off behind me. One of them hit the wall right above my head. I quickly snapped my head in the direction of who fired the gun shots. It wasn't Kurtis…and I knew why. He was starting to put two and two together. The agent behind him shoved Kurtis aside and fired at me again. I held up my hand and told the wind to slow the bullet to a crawl. It obeyed. I then stepped out of its path and told the wind to speed it up. The bullet whizzed past me and shattered the window. I delivered a spin kick to it, breaking more glass and allowing me a swift exit. I heard Kurtis struggling with the agent as I climbed through the window and used the wind to run along the side of the building and out of sight.

Minutes Later. Warehouse District.

Man, talk about a narrow escape. But now I was in deeper shit than before with the authorities. Pretty sure breaking into a government building is a pretty serious crime, even if all I did was use my sister's computer. Whatever, I'd deal with it later. Not important at the moment. Needed to find this Klaus guy. I was getting weird vibes from his mugshot. Like non-human vibes. No one ever looks that smug in any mugshot that I've ever seen. Just what this city needed. Some demon trafficking drugs. Awesome. I was perched on a rooftop as usual and again, used my incredibly useful sensing ability. A familiar vibe was coming from a warehouse off to the left. One hop skip and jump later, and I found myself looking down into what on the outside, looked like an abandoned warehouse. That was not the case. I saw…like almost an orgy happening. Scantily clad dudes and women everywhere obviously high on some powdery substance. I say that because I saw some skinny dude do a line of it off another person's ass. This was like a train wreck, I couldn't look away. But then I saw him. Klaus. The ringleader and, yep, wind was telling me he was a demon in disguise. Perfect. I could kill him and potentially stop this drug being spread around the city.

Before I could make any sort of plan, the wind was telling me that people were approaching. The people below me also seemed to hear. I saw a few armored police vans driving down the road. Oh good! My backup! I watched Klaus make a "quiet down" motion and motioned for his guards (human by the way) to pull their guns out. Oh ok, you want the element of surprise eh? Not on my watch! I pulled neon particles out of the air and onto my finger. I thought I saw a bolt of neon fly off my finger as I struggled to control it for a moment. This was easier when I had signs nearby. I drew a large X in the air and floated it down to attach itself on the side of the warehouse. Then I formed a small air pocket in between my hands and clapped them together which caused a gunshot-like sound to ring out in the area. The vans screeched to a halt while Klaus and the others started freaking out and accusing each other of firing at the police. Didn't matter actually because the police (led by Kurtis of course) poured out of the vans in front of the building I was standing on. Klaus' men panicked and immediately opened fire at the officers who returned fire. All hell broke loose at this point.

While Klaus' men engaged with the police, I took it upon myself to apprehend him. I used pressurized air jets from my fingers to cut a hole in the window and waited for my moment. Klaus was yelling something about saving the drugs and the women as he got under the hole and that's when I yanked him skyward. He screamed as he flew past me but I caught him by the neck on the way down. He gasped when he saw who had caught him.

"YOU!" he growled and his human disguise flickered, showing me his true demonic form.

"Nice night for a party eh?" I answered.

"No no! Don't kill me!" Klaus begged. This was…not what I expected. Were…were Netherrealm demons actually scared of me? Good.

"Give me one good reason not to. You've done a lot of bad things in my city Klaus. A lot," I growled back.

"I'll give you anything!" Klaus said as his human disguise fell away fully. "Chicks! Money! Drugs! Anything you want!" I could tell he was lying. Demons did that often. The ones who actually could talk I mean. A few of them had pulled this kind of shit on me in the past. The amount of demons that offered me sex was astronomical. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought about it with some of the female ones once or twice when I was younger.

"Anything?" I asked and pretended to loosen my grip.

"YES! ANYTHING!" Klaus said believing I was about to let him go. Instead I was telling the wind to form a sort of drill around my other arm which I was cocking back like it was a bolt on a rifle. I pulled Klaus' demonic face right up to mine. His putrid breath was fogging my sunglasses.

"I want you dead," I said simply and rammed my hand through his stomach turning his bowels into a smoothie. He screamed bloody murder as his insides were ripped apart and splattered on my nice jacket and pants. What a jerk am I right? Klaus' legs fell back down through the hole in the window and I was holding his upper half as more blood and guts dripped everywhere. Figuring the cops would take care of the rest, I tossed the former demonic drug dealer in the direction of the officers. I barely heard it splat on the ground before I was gone. I left behind a small pool of blood and pieces of entrails that I had told the wind to remove from my clothes.

I got about 100 yards from the building before I felt her presence.

"Stop!" Kimi shouted at me. I slowly turned to her. She was conscious (obviously) and pointing her gun at me. Rude! I decided to play along and raised my hands.

"Don't. Fucking. MOVE!" she demanded. I saw that her hands were trembling. Wanna bet Kurtis had run his hunch by her already? Before I could do anything else…Uncle Fujin appeared behind her. The hell was he doing here? Oh wait…the bolt I accidently sent in the air. Or maybe he was just keeping an eye on Kimi after her death threat towards me. He walked forward and right into her path. Kimi tried to get another angle on me but Uncle Fujin effortlessly moved into her line of fire every time.

"Uncle, MOVE! I've got the vigilante! He's in the shadows behind you! I can't see his face but I know it's him!" Kimi shouted at him. Uncle Fujin shook his head and folded his arms.

"I will not allow you to harm my student Kimi," he said calmly. Kimi's expression changed from anger to complete and utter wrath.

"Your student?!" she yelled. "YOUR STUDENT?! SO YOU DO KNOW HIM!" Uncle Fujin didn't move but he did give me a signal with a small glance towards me. I knew what he wanted me to do. It was time. Kimi suffering ten years of misery was enough.

"Yes, I trained him," Uncle Fujin explained. "You deduced that pretty fast. Those are in fact my techniques. A little less elegant but the framework is the same."

"HOW LONG!" Kimi screamed. "HOW LONG HAVE YOU KEPT THIS FROM ME! DID HE KILL MY FAMILY?!"

"Too long Kimi," Uncle Fujin said solemnly. "To that I apologize." That seemed to make Kimi angrier.

"DID HE?! YOU, VIGILANTE. DID YOU KILL LAUREN, DANTE AND VICTOR HARRIS! DON'T LIE TO ME! I WILL SHOOT YOU!" Kimi raised her gun and Uncle Fujin acted immediately. He snatched it from her hand with little effort.

"Thrash did not kill your family," he said in his calming tone. "He especially did not kill your little brother." Bad move there uncle. I could see the wrath in Kimi's face slowly turn into red hot fury.

"HOW DO YOU KNOW EXACTLY?!" she shrieked. "HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN TRAINING HIM! IN FACT, HOW LONG HAVE YOU ACTUALLY KNOWN HIM?!"

"Not as long as you have Kimi," Uncle Fujin responded. "Thrash, please step into the light so Agent Harris can see you for the first time in ten years."

Kimi's expression of anger melted away when she registered what our uncle just said. I also followed his orders and emerged from the shadows. Kimi looked me full in the face and I saw her eyes widen and tears quickly form in them. She recognized the stance and overall demeanor of her thought to be deceased brother. I'll be honest, I started to become teary eyed too. Kimi lowered her arms and took a step forward to get a better look at me.

"If you do not believe your eyes, believe your heart," Uncle Fujin said. "Ask him something only he would know."

"What…what was…what did Mom use as her stage name…when she released her own albums? She often said it was her nickname growing up," Kimi struggled to say between sobs. I took off my glasses and looked into my big sister's face. She gasped softly and I heard her go "Vic" in an even softer voice.

"Amaterasu," I answered in my real voice. "Dad called you 'cupcake' or 'little one.' Even when you became an adult." Kimi gasped again. Only three people in the world knew about what she was referred to at home. I was one of them. I saw Uncle Fujin give a small smile of remembrance before returning my full attention to my big sister. My earliest friend. The person that kept me safe from monsters when I got too scared at night.

"Bu…Bu…Buddy?" she sobbed. I wiped my own eyes before I undid the straps of my mask and removed it.

"Hey big sis," I said and smiled. Kimi shoved Uncle Fujin out of the way and nearly tackled me to the ground while attempting to make me go deaf with how loud she was crying and yelling "BUDDY!" and "VICTOR!" I hugged my big sister for the first time in many many years and started to cry along with her. Not as loud because, you know, I was a man! Oh who am I kidding, that was a lie. I had my big sister back!

Kimi eventually put both of her hands on my face and moved a stray strand of hair out of my eyes, just like she used to do when I was a little guy.

"How…" she began.

"I wasn't home. I saw the aftermath," I said. "Uncle Fujin and I decided to throw the attacker and his potential allies off my trail by faking my death." Kimi glared at Uncle Fujin while keeping a firm grip on me.

"I truly am sorry Kimi," he said and bowed his head. "It was the only way. I should have told you a long time ago. I needed to ensure Vic's safety. It's why I kept him hidden for so many years."

"We'll discuss that later," Kimi snapped before she went back to hugging me.

"Sorry I knocked you out," I said. Kimi gave me a small kiss on the cheek.

"I'll get you back for that," she said and sniffed. "Kurt told me that Thrash resembled you but I didn't want to believe him. And then…I saw how you were standing when I confronted you. I know my little buddy well enough to know how he holds himself."

I smiled down at her…but then I saw it. Another figure. Two to be exact. One male and one female. Uncle Fujin could also see them apparently because he was staring at the female one. The female was an older version of the woman currently hugging me very tightly minus the faux hawk. It was my mom. Her hair flowed down her back almost as if it was made of light itself. She was wearing the clothes she died in, a white undershirt, red flannel and jeans. No footwear though. It looked as though the fire ignited parts of her clothes too but she showed no burn marks. Standing next to her was an older version of me but with shorter hair and full beard. My dad. He too was wearing the clothes he died in. A retro video game t-shirt, a black button down shirt and jeans. Same thing. His clothes looked a little ragged too.

"Mom," I said out loud and caused Kimi to follow my gaze. She gasped.

"Daddy," she said as if she was a little girl again. Mesmerized at what I was seeing, I walked over to my mom. Her warm smile informed me that she wasn't here to hurt me in the slightest. I could see small wispy tears were going down her ethereal cheeks. She reached out her hand to me and I instinctively went to grab it. My hand went through hers but I felt such a strong sense of warmth and love shoot through my hand. Kimi had apparently done the same thing to our father. I heard her whisper "no" from off to my right. My mom crossed her hand over her heart once, a gesture I knew meant "I love you my sweet boy." I looked at my dad and he gave me a two fingered salute, his own way of saying that he loved me.

"Hikari…hontou ni gomen nasai," Uncle Fujin said in Japanese. My mom turned her head in Uncle Fujin's direction. She smiled at him and seemed to glow brighter. She held up her hand and then motioned to both me and Kimi before she and my dad faded away. I think I understood what she wanted to say. She wanted her children reunited and forgave Uncle Fujin for hiding me from Kimi.

Kimi and I looked at each other for a moment before over at Uncle Fujin. He was staring at the ground and taking deep breaths. He looked up at us after a few seconds.

"So…the cat's out of the bag now so to speak," he said quickly. "Kimi, I can assure you, this is not a dream. Vic is alive. He's been alive this whole time. I understand if you are mad at me but-oof!" Kimi ran over and hugged Uncle Fujin and pecked him on the cheek softly.

"Thank you for keeping him safe uncle," I heard her say. I smiled as they hugged it out and went to pick up my fallen glasses and mask while thinking about what I had just seen. I saw them. My parents. The people who had taught me everything. The people I knew were watching over my every move with pride. The people I swore to avenge a long time ago and will continue to do so until the day I die.

"Hey! What the hell is this!" Kurtis' voice suddenly rang out over the area. I looked over to see him marching over to Kimi and Uncle Fujin. I stayed put, waiting for the opportune moment. Might be a good idea to tell Kurtis too. He'd be able to get his co-workers to stop shooting at me.

"Who the hell are you!" Kurtis said angrily. Kimi let go of Uncle Fujin.

"Greetings Mr. Stryker," he said and bowed. "I am Fujin. Kimi's maternal uncle."

"Maternal uncle?" Kurtis asked. "Wait…I thought your mom's brothers died years ago." I saw Uncle Fujin flinch slightly upon hearing this sentence. Kimi shook her head.

"In actuality, they had a big falling out. I met Fujin shortly after the funeral," Kimi said and glanced at me. I saw her start to cry again. Yeah sis. I'm here. I'm gonna tell the man you wanna marry right now. Don't worry.

"Kim," Kurtis asked and put his hands on her shoulders. "You ok?" Kimi nodded and pointed at me. Kurtis followed her finger and saw me standing there without my glasses or mask on. I saw his mind work quickly before his mouth fell open and he looked back at Kimi. She was crying again and nodded once.

"You…you were right babe," Kimi managed to say as I walked forward. Kurtis sensed my movement and looked in my direction. His eyes got as wide as dinner plates.

"Anyone ever tell you the backwards hat thing makes you look like a dork? Wait a minute…that was me wasn't it?" I said and smiled. Kurtis didn't move. He stood there staring at me in shock. I walked over and waved my hand in front of his face and snapped my fingers.

"I think I broke him," I said to Kimi and shrugged. "Sorry. We'll get you a new one." That's when Kurtis moved. He pulled me into the best bro hug of all time while saying "no fucking way" over and over. We pretty much matched each other in height in case you were wondering. I think he's got me by like a quarter inch though.

"You gonna stop shooting at me now? I didn't kill that dude on Fourth and Spring either," I asked eventually. Then I whispered "You can marry Kimi. I give you my blessing. Uncle does too." Kurtis slapped me on the back before looking back at Kimi and they both hugged. I could tell Kimi was simply ecstatic at the whole situation. I felt Uncle Fujin place his hand on my shoulder. I looked over at him to see him giving me his warm smile, which informed me that I had done a good job tonight.

Now I needed to do something much harder…tell Cassie. I just hope she wasn't going to be mad at me for leaving her alone for ten years.