Puppetry
After the incident, Vlad bound Xero to the ceiling and taped his mouth shut so that he could do no further harm. Slowly, Longinus was regaining his senses. He had started talking and the shivering had calmed down. It had been four days, during which the two who could move rarely left the lab. Questions built in Xero mind, waiting for the tape to be removed so they could be answered. Why didn't I just kill him when I had the chance? What happens if the fleabag gets hurt before I can give him his collar back? Why do I care? He gasped. What if my powers don't come back?!
Xero had fallen asleep hanging from the ceiling the night Vlad bound him to the ceiling. They did not bother to wake him, as they were still angry with him. Vlad had gone to get food for himself and Longinus.
Hurry up, brother. I'm getting bored. said a familiar voice in Xero's head. Unless, of course, you want an encore of what happened the other day...
"It was you?!" Xero replied.
Wake up, dude.
"Huh?" He felt a sharp pain on his scalp. He tried to grab his head, but could not move his arms, though it seemed nothing was binding him.
C'mon, wake up.
He was back in the lab, still hanging from the ceiling, which explained why he could not move. He looked below himself and found Longinus pulling his hair. Not able to speak, Xero shot a murderous glare at the Wolf, making him stop instantly.
"'Bout time you got up, d'you have any idea how long I've been pulling your hair?" Longinus said. He reached up and tapped the tape on Xero's mouth, making it burn away.
"I see your better." Xero said bitterly.
"Almost." Longinus turned to the table behind him and picked up two green apples and tossed one to Xero, forgetting that he was still bound, not that it mattered. The apple, instead of falling to the floor, floated before Xero. Longinus raised an eyebrow to that. "If you could still do that, why didn't you just break the restraints?"
"I needed time to think without being expected to answer questions." Xero replied, biting into the apple.
"Oh, you're capable of thought?"
"Shut it..." That instant, Longinus's mouth snapped shut against his will.
Longinus pried his mouth out of Xero's telekinetic grip. "Anyway, I have a proposal."
"Sorry, not that kind of Panther." Xero replied instantly.
"B*****d, you know that I mean."
"Damn, you have no sense of humor." Xero replied. "Whats your proposal?"
"You teach me Dark magic, and I teach you Light."
"Or I can just give you your collar back and be done with this weirdness."
"Sorry, not possible." Longinus said, looking for something to break Xero's bindings.
"WHAT THE HELL?!" Xero roared. He squirmed in the cement prison, combining telekinesis with his own physical strenght until it shattered. He landed on his feet and immediately began yanking at the collar. The collar pulsed and Xero heard a thud behind him. He turned around to see that Longinus had collapsed. "Oh great, I'm sure I won't get blamed for this one!"
A door opened aboke them. Crap!
"Yo, Furball, I got food!" Vlad called.
"Cool, I'll be up in a sec!" Xero called back in Longinus's voice. "Furball?" he whispered in his own. He lifted Longinus up and put him in a chair.
"Nah, it's cool, I'll come down there."
CRAP! Xero quickly put Longinus in a natural pose and sat on the other side of the lab.
When Vlad reached the bottom of the stairs that lead into the lab, he instantly formed another fist in the floor. "You have .03 seconds to explain why you're down." he said.
"Relax, Vlad." Longinus said. "I let him down."
Vlad turned to Longinus with a questioning face.
Xero smirked and shrugged behind Vlad, making Longinus do the same. "He isn't bothering me none." Xero continued in Longinus's voice.
A few moments passed and Vlad shrugged, and tossed him a small white box. "Enjoy." He took a seat between the two of them.
Xero raised his right paw to make Longinus raise his left and catch the box, which was followed by chopsticks. Oh damn... Xero had absolutely no clue as to how to operate chopsticks. He opened the box of rice. Why do we even bother using these manmade torture devices?! Xero thought as he clumsily positioned the sticks between his fingers.
"Problem there, Bro?" Vlad said, noticing Longinus's unconscious body trying to use its chopstick by putting one in each hand.
"Nah, just having an idiot moment." Xero said, still borrowing the sleeping wolf's voice. He immediately stopped moving when he saw that Vlad was turning to face him.
"Now you." Vlad said. "Why did you continue that freakish 'magic' of yours after he begged you to stop?"
"Fre-freakish?!" Xero replied indignantly, almost using Longinus's voice. "I'll have you know, my magic is an art!" In that instant, he blew his cover. When he defended his magic, Xero accidentally made a flailing motion that Longinus's body mimicked by throwing his box of rice at Vlad.
"WHAT THE HELL?!" Vlad shouted, turning to Longinus.
"Er--get a sense of humor!" Xero said, making Longinus wave a hand to lift the rice from Vlad and the floor and back into its box.
Vlad nodded and reached into his coat, possibly scratching an itch. "I have a sense of humor... but I also have a low tolerance for TRICKERY!" He drew his paw from his coat, holding a silver dagger similar to Longinus's. He turned to threw the knife and pinned Xero to his chair by his right shoulder. "Now, care to tell me why he's bleeding?" Vlad said, watching blood spill from a hole in Longinus's shirt as he struggled unconciously to remove a knife that was not there.
"Fine, you caught me." Xero hissed. "Now take out this damned knife!"
"Whats wrong with my brother?" Vlad demanded.
Xero sighed. "I'm not sure. After I got down, I tried to get his collar off me and he just passed out."
Vlad checked Longinus's pulse. "He's still alive. I guess he just needs sleep."
"What happened?"
"You dare call yourself an Eternus." Vlad said. He sighed. "Has that arm of yours ever been injured or broken?" Xero shook his head. "Well, when an anchor is tampered with in a way that might alter it, the soul tied to it becomes disturbed. The soul knocks the body out so that it can act against the tamperer through the anchor."
"I guess that explains the pulsing." Xero said. "Now that the lesson is over, do you mind?" He said, gesturing to the dagger still in his shoulder.
"Right, sorry." Vlad walked over and snapped his fingers before wrapping his right paw around the dagger's handle. Inside Xero, the dagger straightened, allowing the Wolf to pull it out without ripping the Panther's shoulder anymore than it already had.
"There's one thing I have to know." Xero said, pressing a paw on his shoulder. "What gave me away?"
Vlad smirked. "Two things. First, Longinus isn't telekinetic. The way you picked up the rice was a dead giveaway."
"Okay, that's one." Xero chuckled.
"Second, the thing that made me suspect more than anything. He'dve went ballistic if he'd heard me call him Furball."
Xero and Vlad talked for a while as they waited for Longinus to wake up. Vlad explained why the collar could not be removed and Xero divulged the real reason he was in Raven's Way.
"So a voice in your head told you to come to this city?" Vlad asked
"Well damn, if you want to make me sound nuts, then yeah!" Xero replied.
"You said he called you 'Brother'."
"Yeah."
"Do you have a brother?"
"Thats the weird thing, I don't." Xero stood up and walked to the table he had flipped over. It had since been picked up and the experiments had been resumed. He looked through the boiling liquids and turned to Vlad. "So, you're some kind of mad scientist?"
"You could say that." Vlad replied. "I'm an alchemist."
"Didn't alchemy end a few centuries ago?"
"Yeah, but I'm what some might call 'old-school'."
"More like 'no' school."
"Says the demystified cat." Vlad laughed. "Anyway, you two managed to find me, so I guess I'll help you out. We'll look for whoever's been contacting you first."
"Why bother? It's my problem."
'"Well, I'm sure whoever's pulling the strings behind this so-called conspiracy isn't working alone. We might need the help if this guy's really your brother."
"But I just said I don't have a brother!"
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