Chapter 16: Bullets

A Chapter by Andrew Akuna

Bullets

Longinus had made it safely into the basement. Vlad had found Xero and everything seemed to be going well. The staff was tending to panicking patients and security was too busy trying to figure out what caused the outtage. Every now and then, a nurse or an orderly would stop by to ask them what they were doing, resulting in them disappearing that instant, dropped off the roof of the building with Xero's speed.

"Can't you do take care of them in a more humane way?" Vlad asked.

"Well, I could be ripping them to shreds." Xero replied. "Would you prefer that?" He had barely finished the sentence before a tiger that had stopped before him mysteriously vanished.

"No, but it'd be nice if you'd let them live." Vlad answered, hearing the wail of an ambulance and police sirens as they battled the security team.

Xero laughed. "Hey, not my fault. If they were doing their jobs instead of being curious, they could live. Besides, I'm letting the ladies live. See? I'm being a gentleman about it!" He put a paw on his earpiece. "Longinus, how's it going down there?"

Longinus grabbed the handle of a file cabinet and ripped the door off of it. "Everything's locked."

"Crap."

"Hey, I said everything was locked. No one said it stopped me."

"Well have you found anything yet?" Xero carried another curious worker off to his grave as he spoke to the younger Wolf, still appearing not to move from his post on the right side of the basement door.

"Actually, I think I'll have something in a minute or so." Longinus said as he threw a folder over his shoulder. "Suprisingly, Black isn't a very common name in Raven's Way."

"Really? How many?" Vlad asked, striking a security guard in the chest. The guards had given up on the cause of the outtage and opted to find the person responsible. They had succeeded in finding Vlad, but that was not necessarily a good thing.

"Only about twenty." Longinus replied, throwing another file. "I'll be done soon. Get ready."

Xero kicked a guard in the chin, then scratched another, leaving a trails of fire on him that stretched from his face to his chest. Another guard made nearly managed to sneak up on him, but was quickly taken care of by a bullet from Vlad.

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Longinus continued rifling through the files, throwing more across the room. He was grateful for not having to fight at the moment, but the job he had been given had begun to wear on his nerves. Even though there were so few with Xero's last name, it was becoming frustrating. After a few more minutes of searching fruitlessly through the folders, he finally found one marked Avery Black. Just as he open the folder, he felt something cold an circular on his back before hearing a small clicking sound.

"Don't move, Hun." whispered a feminine voice from behind him. "I'll make this quick..."

"How about I make it quicker?" Longinus replied. He disappeared just before the woman pulled the trigger on the gun she had on him. The Wolf flickered into view behind her the next instant.

It was a Kitsune in a black, floor-length dress split up the right. She had black fur all over save her paws and around her piercing blue eyes. Her head was covered with long white hair that fell to the middle of her back, even though it was pinned up on the back of her head.

She flipped the pistol in her paw so that it pointed at the Wolf behind her, then fired, missing only by an inch. She turned around and aimed a kick at Longinus's head. When he caught her ankle, she kicked off the ground, then off of Longinus, knocking him to the ground across the room as she flipped to her feet. She aimed the gun at him again. He was gone again.

In a swift move, he knocked the Kitsune to the other side of the room. "I was taught never to fight girls. Don't make me break dear old mom's heart."

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The collar on Xero's arm pulsed. Amazingly, even though he was preoccupied with the security guard, Xero noticed it the first time. He called out to Vlad.

"Vlad! Longinus is in trouble!" the Panther shouted. "Will you be all right by yourself?"

"Fantastic!" Vlad called back, pinching the nerves in a guard's arms. "Go ahead!"

Xero nodded and turned to open the door, only to find it locked. He jumped back and kicked the door in. The instant he stepped through the doorway, he felt a blinding pain in his forehead. The pain bolted quickly through his brain and came to life on the back of his head. Whoever was endangering Longinus had shot Xero in the head. The Panther fell backward and onto the stairs.

The Kitsune looked at her victim and smiled as she turned her eyes back to Longinus. In that instant, she was on the ground.

Longinus, while his attacker was making herself content with Xero's death, had gotten to his feet and struck her on the back of the head with Vlad's Desert Eagle. He ran up the stairs to Xero. The Panther was still dead from the bullet, but according to the glowing tattoos and collar on his arm, he would be on his feet again in a few moments. Longinus picked his head up to make sure the bullet had gone through instead of being lodged in his brain. When he was sure he put Xero's head down and climbed up the steps, seeing the bullets sitting there slowly being eaten away by the Panther's black blood. He picked it up and looked closely at it.

"This is a high-penetration bullet..." Longinus said. "His vest couldn'tve stopped this..." He heard someone call his name, then three gunshots. Everything went dark.

Xero sprang to his feet and fired three rounds at the Kitsune (who dodged effortlessly) before calling for Vlad. He quickly got up the steps to where Longinus had fallen and threw the Wolf over his shoulder.

Vlad reached them and began swearing fluently. "I'll take care of this. Get him back to the building and d****t, don't let him die!"

Xero nodded and lifted Longinus over his shoulders before they both disappeared.

Vlad drew a second pistol from inside his vest and proceeded into the basement.