Chapter 6: Lure [2]

A Chapter by Andrew Akuna

Lure (Pt. 2)

Alright, Vlad. I know you're here... Longinus thought as he roamed the city.

Raven's Way was a city where human life hardly existed. Perhaps one might be seen at a bar, or leaving the city, but never really living there. The city was inhabited by a myriad of different creatures like Xero and Longinus. The perimeter was shaped like a raven and the streets gave it the appearance of a giant puzzle. In the night, the city seemed to glow when its skyscrapers and neon lights exploded into life.

Longinus knew he had no chance of finding his brother if he looked, so using that as an excuse, the wolf swaggered into a nightclub. He got over the bar at the right and took a seat, then looked to the other side of the room. There was a dance floor filled with furs dancing to techno music.

"What'll ya have?" Longinus turned around to see the bartender standing behind him, a tall, white Tiger with a mark on his nose similar to Xero's scar.

Longinus laughed to himself. "Scotch." The Tiger nodded and turned to the bottles to find scotch. I'm not dead yet, maybe Xero's trying to find me.

"Scotch." said the Tiger, placing a glass before Longinus. He smiled and looked the Tiger in the eye. His eyes flashed and the light left the Tiger's. He fell backward and hit the floor. Longinus took the glass and turned around to watch the dancing patrons while he enjoyed his drink. Just as he lifted his glass to his mouth, the wolf caught sight of another leaving the club. At that moment, everything seemed to die. He did not see the patrons, or hear the music. The only thing that existed was the wolf leaving the club and the sound of his footsteps. "Brother?"

He dropped the glass, letting it break on the floor, and ran out the door after the other wolf. When he reached the sidewalk, the wolf had vanished. Longinus looked across the street to see a wolf almost identical to him standing there staring at him. A truck passed between them and the wolf was gone.

"D****t!" Longinus shouted. He heard something above him. He looked up and saw the other wolf looking down at him from the roof of the club. "WAIT!" A ring of incantations circled under his feet and blasted him up above the roof. He could see the wolf flipping onto the next roof. Another ring appeared behind Longinus. He kicked off it and bolted toward the wolf. The wolf turned around and smirk. He reached under his coat and took out two glass flasks, one with red liquid and another with blue. He put one is each hand and threw them at Longinus, then turned to walk away. The flasks collided before the chasing wolf and exploded when the liquids combined and met the air. The wolf chuckled, but to his dismay, Longinus emerged from the smoke unscathed, surrounded by white light.

The wolf's ears twitched. He looked over his shoulder and smirked. "Little brother wants to keep up eh..." he chuckled to himself. "Keep up with this!" the older wolf shouted out as he suddenly turned and leapt from the building he was on and to the roof of an adjacent one. In mid air, he snapped his fingers, then opened his paw slamming them it the roof as he landed on one knee. In a bright blue flash, a massive fist composed of concrete snaked out from the bulding and hurled itself at Longinus.

Longinus, instead of being hit by the fist, landed on it and ran down the arm, dodging spikes as Vlad continued alter the building. He vaulted over a wall that exploded from the arm. When he reached the bottom, Vlad rose backward on one hand and transmuted spikes before springing away. Longinus dodged the spikes easily, but it cost him. He looked up and Vlad was gone...

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Meanwhile<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

A car horn blared as Xero dodged it, jumping onto the sidewalk.

Xero had made it to Raven's Way. The place already had several strikes against it. First off, it was loud, then there were machines that made it difficult to breathe, following that, the furs here were rude. The one redeeming quality was it's lack of human ignorance. Xero had been in the city for a only a few hours now and already wanted to go home.

The quicker I find Longinus, the quicker I can find out who's calling me and get the hell out of this place...

"Outta my way freak!" shouted a Bull with a blue streak on his head and several randomly colored spots on the rest of him. Xero pushed the Bull aside. The Bull snorted angrily and swung a hoof at Xero. The panther blocked it easily with his glowing arm, then used the fingers on his gun arm to strike pressure points in the Bull's shoulder's, paralyzing his arms. After the cursing Bull's arms fell to his sides, Xero dropped to one knee and swept his left leg under the Bull, taking him off his feet. Before the Bull could hit the ground, Xero got up and kicked him into the brick building next to them, then let him fall to the ground. Stunned onlookers looked to one another, then to Xero and started applauding. Xero chuckled nervously, then turned and started walking.

"Watch out!" someone shouted. Xero turned around to see the Bull charging at him. Before he could react, the Bull had knocked him off his feet and several meters away. Xero regained his balance in the air and flipped to his feet as the Bull was preparing to charge again. Xero pressed a button on the sniper gauntlet and a thin red laser extended from a small opening above the barrel, making a red dot right between the Bull's eyes. There was a trickling sound and some laughing, then triumphant shouts as the embarrassed Bull ran off.

"Hm... I supposed I could get used to this place." Xero removed his mask and bowed, then jumped and ran off on a rooftop.

Back to business... Xero said to himself. He kept running, jumping from building to building, searching for any sign of Longinus. He'd better not already be dead... The collar was reacting too much now to rely on it, so now it was up to Xero's nose. The problem was that there were so many different furs here, many of them lupine. Another reason I don't like cities: TOO MANY PEOPLE!

Something flashed in the corner of his eye. He turned to see a wolf running from the source.

"Longinus!"