Chapter 21: Luna

Luna



"D****t!" Vladimir exclaimed. When he and Longinus had returned from Raven's Way, Xero was gone. He had left no note saying where he was headed, but a name carved into the table in the library told them enough. Before Xero left, he had clawed the name 'Halim Blake' into the table.

"Now what do we do?" Longinus asked, taking a seat to attempt planning.

"Shh..." Vladimir replied, holding a paw to his earpiece. "I'm picking up police radio chatter."

...White haired Panther...some sort of magic...--ing holes in buildings...--eople...--njured..."

Vladimir and Longinus looked to earch other in horror. "XERO!" They shouted in unison.

It only took them about five minutes to gather all the equipment they might need. It was really nothing to think about. Xero had lost it and was destroying the city. No conventional weapons would hurt him, not that they wanted to, so the weapon of choice was a spellbook. Since Xero and Longinus's murders, things had quieted down to the point where they could all walk the streets, but they still needed reasonable disguises and Longinus definitely still needed his bulletproof vest. As they prepared to go through the door portal back to Longinus's apartment, They both felt something. It was as if something was telling them that this would not end well by any stretch of the imagination. Something inside them was telling them that if they stepped through, there would be no turning back this time and no time to think. Somthing was asking them if they really wanted to step through. Xero had become a friend. The answer was yes, no matter what the consequences.

Moonlit rubble. The entire floor on which Longinus's apartment was had been destroyed. It was like standing atop a ruin. Longinus looked over the edge which was once his bedroom. He saw three R.W.P.D. motorcycles bolting up the street below, Looking ahead from there was nothing short of amazing. It was terrible, Xero had cause awe-inspiring destruction to the city thus far. The question was how did they manage to miss it. They had left Raven's Way all of one hour ago and Xero had already done so much.

"Why is he doing this?!" Longinus exclaimed.

Vladimir looked on into the falling city. "He isn't. It's Aadrik. Aadrik is possessing him."

"How much time do we have?"

"None. We need to calm Xero down before he destroys the city completely." Vladimir turned to Longinus. "Listen to me. You're not following me down there. You can still die, so you will be on a nearby rooftop. I don't know much magic and won't be able to thumb through a spellbook if I have to fight him. You will be reading me spells through your mic from whatever building you choose, just stay out of harm's way, got it?"

Ordinarily, Longinus would argue, but now was not the time. He agreed and took the spellbook from Vladimir. "If Aadrik is possessing Xero, then he must be bringing him to wherever he's being held captive. It's best you not stop him, just keep the people from being killed. We can repair the city later. Right now, we need to follow him.

Vladimir nodded, then ran to the edge in the direction of Xero's path and leapt onto an adjacent rooftop with Longinus not too far behind. It took them no time to find the panther. Xero had foolishly gone into the city wearing the same clothes he had on during the police station incident. He appeared to have gone into a berserk state, which had allowed him to tap into a dormant power inside of him. From the rooftop, Vladimir noticed several outward effects of this new power. His irises had turned glowing red and the symbols on his arms were burning with the same light. He had grown a pair of slender horns from his forehead and a pair of feathery black wings had sprouted from his back.

"Xero..." Vladimir watched in horror as the monster on the street below him slowly lifted his paw toward a building to his left as he walked hypnotically toward an unknown destination, cars being blasted out of his path by an unseen force. A slowly turning ring composed of the symbols on his arms formed in the air just beyond his paw. The inside of the ring flashed just before a dark, black and red sphere blasted from it and through the building he had subconciously aimed at. Vladimir gasped and Xero's head instantly turned toward him. A twisted grin crossing his face.

"Why Vladimir...it's been so long." Xero said, but it was not Xero's voice. It was an older voice dripping with malice. "Are you well?"

The wolf did not respond. He got to a rooftop a few buildings ahead of Xero and ran a paw across his throat, When he spoke, it was like he was speaking into a megaphone. "Everyone! Get out of your vehicles and run! You are not safe anywhere within a five block radius! Run!"

Xero's smile faded with a tilt of his head as he drew a revolver from under his vest. When he fired, it was as if the bullet was charged with lightning.

"Luna Contego."

"Luna Contego!" Vladimir shouted. Just before the bullet could touch him, it was snuffed out.

"Luna Contego is a shield spell. As long as you're covered in moonlight, you're safe from any magic." Longinus explained. "Don't get caught in a dark spot."

Vladimir nodded, then jumped down to the street in front of Xero.

"You're not Xero, are you?"

"How perceptive." the panther replied.

"Let him go, Halim."

"HOW DARE YOU?!" Xero raised a paw toward Vladimir. He attempted the same spell he had used on the building, but before the sphere reached Vladimir, it faded away,

"So it is you." the wolf said, stepping toward Xero. "Why are you doing this, Aadrik?"

"This city... was built by them!"

"Who?!"

"The people who have me right now...I HAVE TO DESTROY IT!" With that, he stretched both arms out and performed the spell in two directions.

"Gravis Luna." The spheres were both snuffed out before they reached their targets.

"What is this?!" Xero shouted. trying and failing to cast more spells.

"Gravis Luna, or Heavy Moon, uses moonlight to stop all magic by erradicating it before it can be molded into any given form. In this case, those blasts of his." Longinus explained.

"Aadrik. Listen to me. You don't need to do this. Just lead us to you and we'll work it out from there." Vladimir took a step toward Xero. "You don't need to kill the innocent people that live here!"

"I'm not trying to. They're just in the way." Xero replied with a grin. "Beneath the city. That's where I am. If I have to punch a hole through it, why not make it a fun hole?"

"Aadrik, there's nothing fun about possession and murder!" Vladimir shouted. "If not of the people in this place, think of your BROTHER! If you went through the trouble of draining your parents' lives to save him, why do this to him now?!"

Xero chuckled. "Okay, since we're playing the blood card, why do what you're doing to your brother?"

"What do you mean?"

Without looking turing Xero's head, Aadrik saw Longinus turning pages in the spellbook. He was atop a building behind him. The next instant, the building was crumbling.

"Longinus! I thought you said that spell stopped magic!"

On the rooftop, Longinus scrambled to find a safer position on another building. "It does! This isn't magic though! It's telekinesis!"

"Vlad looked back to Xero. "Okay! Lets talk. Let him get down safely and let's talk about this."

"Good boy." Xero's smile became more twisted by the second. He reached a paw backward and aimed at Longinus, who was now dangling by one paw from the now sloped roof. A black sphere surrounded him, then vanished along with the wolf, reappearing between Xero and Vladimir.

"Aadrik, where under the city are you?" Vladimir asked.

"There's an entrance below the mayor's house. Thats where I was headed." Xero replied. "He's a part of it."

"What's going on? Do you know?"

"The Longevity trait. The mayor is a pawn, but he gets a taste of immortality if he keeps things quiet. They want to isolate and replicate the trait so they can live forever."

"Who?" Longinus asked.

"Dunno. Find me and we'll sort this all out together." Xero replied. "I'll leave it to you now."

Xero's black wings wrapped around him, then exploded, leaving the original Xero to fall on the ground before them.

 

Author's Note

to any other readers, you are now caught up. i'm currently working on 22

Reviews

[Forist.johnston]

'to any other readers, you are now caught up. i'm currently working on 22'

Haha, you mean other than me? I liked this chapter, raised a lot of new questions. Really happy Longinus
didn't die. Hurry on Chapter twenty-two!