Silver felt his heart in his throat as this cop pulled out something- Silver was already bolting and the man was yapping into a walkie talkie-
"Splitter sighted in sector nine- Stop him at all costs!"
Silver jumped to grab the rung of a fire ladder and started clamoring up it, hoping that it would buy him some time as Reaper split away, barking, "Where are you going?!"
"I'm going to lose the cops! Get out of the city, get Blythe away!"
"But-" what if there was a limit on how far they could get- especially with these headaches-
"GO!" Witch screeched, hopping down to the street, starting to shove through waves of pedestrians. Soon enough, a set of barks behind him signaled the Crusaders behind them- people would think he's a criminal, maybe even stop him-
Or maybe some Witches would help him too.
A lot of people mistook Blaze as a Witch, but she was just Blaze, who was responsible for around 1 out of every 1,235 unlucky souls who died from smoke and fire. A lot of those had to deal with Witches, so that's where the confusion lay. She resided over the Soleanna Fire, or "Operation Iblis," as the Crusaders called it, where thousands of Witches burned alive, or choked on the smoke spewing from the inferno. The ones shot down were someone else's responsibility.
Naturally, she had a lot of free time to do whatever Reaper Valkyrie asked. Like babysitting little Splitters. She watched from the shadows as he had approached the cop, and had seen the pin before he had. When the Splitter panicked and bolted, Blaze rushed to the officer radio-ing the others, and overtook him with the blunt end of her scythe, Pitryāna. But the message had been sent- the Splitter was here, stop him.
Blaze flourished her battle axe and squinted to find the Splitter's trail. Like an animal, he would likely run off and be forced to choose to fight or flee-
But he could make both, and that would be the wrong decision. She leapt onto the roof in a bound and followed the Witch-half running through Lotus Cove with Crusaders on his trail, as closely as she could while remaining in the shadows.
"Stop him!" the police-Crusaders barked, drawing some modified firearms. From the look of it, they were standard-issue like any officer, but equipped with silver bullets. Silver stunned both Reapers and Witches, though Grim Reapers were much harder to wound.
Blaze's fur prickled as one of the Crusaders pulled out a flare gun, and took careful aim at the silver hedgehog- Fire was a guaranteed Witch-killer.
When he fired the flare, the purple Reaper flung her hand out to contort the flare to suddenly shoot up instead of ahead towards the Splitter-half. Most Mobians were startled by the loud crackle and burst of flame of the flare capsule. The flash of light gave the fleeing hedgehog just enough cover to duck out of sight and gain some distance between his pursuers.
Witch remembered a flash of red or orange behind him and turned into a large entrance- maybe a mall, maybe a hotel resort- just remembered that the barking voices were getting louder, and he needed to think fast!
Zigging and zagging through the loud, bright building, he caught sight of a door, and smirked as he sensed a tight space with a lot of ladies. Maybe-!
As one of the officers cried out "Over there!" Witch ducked into the room and closed it after him. When the Crusaders, out of breath, reached the door and flung it open-
"AAAAAaaaaah!" A young silver hedgehog shrieked as she was getting dressed. Similarly, her fellow ladies barked and lashed at the cops for barging in on a women's dressing room.
"Perverts!"
"What do you think you're doing?!"
"Beat it or I'll call security!"
With red faces the Crusaders shut the door and started looking around, though they could have sworn he went in this door... but how could he if it was a women's dressing room?
Still in shock from the cops busting in while she was putting on her clothes, the silver hedgehog peeked out from her clenched hands., batting her long eyelashes. When the dressing room returned to its usual atmosphere, she sighed and allowed herself a giggle.
#$& that was close.
The door handle turned and another woman slipped in the crack she made with the door. She was a purple cat wearing a vest and shirt, sporting some very fashionable skinny jeans. She nudged by Witch with a quiet "excuse me.."
"No problem, hon," Witch purred, before getting yanked by the back of the neck towards a large closet, the walls and thick costumes blocking all the light out.
Once the dragging stopped, Witch growled and cocked Heartbreaker, now several inches taller than his female transformation. "Who's there? Show yourself."
Someone struck a match and the purple cat was in front of him, sporting glasses that glinted like her golden eyes. The semi-business top was now a full-blown suit.
*& #.
"That was a stupid move back there," she stated. "You were lucky that flare didn't hit its mark,"
Witch tilted his head. "Flare?"
"The Crusaders. They were trying to kill you, remember? Or were you too caught up on what breast size you should have for your little... distraction?"
Witch puffed, dissipating Heartbreaker. "Are you gonna knock me out like that & #$ tried to the other day or what?"
"My name is Reaper Blaze," she grumbled. "And you're lucky that I am, otherwise someone else either too busy or too incompetent would be stuck looking after you."
The hedgehogs ears pricked. "Huh? Looking after me?"
"Well, you as a whole. You should have stayed that way; now it's going to be harder to get out of this place." Still didn't care to explain how she saw through his disguise of sorts.
"You relied too much on the element of surprise," she stated, as if reading his mind. "If a woman Crusader had opened the door, she would have recognized your fur, skin and hair almost instantly. Next time, Goddess forbid, try not to transform into something so blatantly you."
"What, are you part Witch too?" he huffed, feeling like he was in the principal's office.
Blaze's ear flicked but she replied, "No. I just happen to know a lot about them. I didn't realize this half was all for show. My name is Reaper Blaze I have no last name because the first one is more than necessary. Arson, explosion, smoke inhalation, fiery bombs or a bonfire fit for a Witch, you name it."
The hedgehog shuddered at the mention of bonfire. "So... you saw-"
"Yes, I was there, at Soleanna. I just so happened to see a Splitter there, too. I reported it, and now I'm following you. Or one of you, at least."
"Re-reported it? Who-who else knows about me?!"
"Well, every Crusader on the Third Continent does, as well as a handful of Witches, and the Council of Grim Reapers, headed by my boss. Which brings me back to the matter of us in a dressing room in the middle of a city currently on Splitter watch."
"Hey- how on Gaia's green Mobius was I supposed to know that cop wasn't a cop?!"
"I didn't expect you to. According to your records, this is your first time east of Soleanna. You wouldn't know about the heavy concentration of Crusaders around here. It's true that they thin out when you get closer to the Box, but as long as you're outside the Box, there's still a heavy danger of the Paradise closing in on you.
"East of Soleanna is a place with a lot of miracles and wonder. Most if not all Mobians know it's a very unique place. And the ones that do are more often than not, part of the Third Continent Order. You won't be able to squeak by with a few parlor tricks here, let alone all the way to the Box.
"So listen very carefully..."
Reaper Shadow descended into the dungeon with Acacia branches in his mouth and an unconscious Mobian dragging behind him. He moved the Mobian next to the branching roots of the Acanthus plant, seeking out life forms.
Speaking of life forms, Selene wasn't here. His fur prickled, and he looked around for signs... there was a pile of wood, and some herbs in piles. He walked over to the Wiccan ingredients, peering at them.
"Don't tamper with them," a voice called, and from the shadows appeared the Witch holding a bottle filled with clear liquid. As she came into the dim light, Shadow could see the label on the bottle, and he growled.
"Why do you have a bottle of vodka?" he grumbled as she came close. The Witch hummed, mock-hiding the bottle.
"Grain alcohol is one of the ingredients, wouldn't you know?" Selene chuckled, pulling the alcohol out for the Reaper to see. "This happens to be the best kind for our purpose. It's odorless and near-tasteless, and the alcohol you're worried about will be cooked out by then."
Shadow grumbled and held out his hand, Selene handing it over for him to examine. "I don't see how a bottle of vodka would be as accessible for the alchemists of the Dark Ages," he mumbled. "Are you sure this is a key ingredient?"
"Well, I could go back and get a bottle of gin if you're not happy with this. Though the juniper berries may tamper with the other herbs..."
The Reaper puffed and gave her back the bottle, before turning away from her. There was something different, now that she'd used magic. Something he wasn't ready for. Like that night when she regained her body, what magic she had she used to subdue Katerina, and then again in Soleanna, when she changed her clothes...
"Reminds me: I need to step back out and get supplies so we can start. Can you hold down the basement- ah,"- she'd noticed the body stirring and slowly being wrapped by the Acanthus roots. "You brought another!" She stooped to set the bottle down and hurried over to the Mobian next to Moorson's decaying body, grinning ear to ear. "Fantastic!"
He let himself have a little smile. It was much more fun with this one, this time. He hadn't had to act like some egghead with a lot of money and a fetish for everyday things from yesteryear, no, this time he was able to scare the slimy worm in the dead of night.
"I'm sorry you weren't there to see it," he admitted, sighing. "He was pretty entertaining."
Wh-what do you want? Wh-what's this all about- What have those idiots done?!
'Those idiots?' Humph. I'm afraid this is a much older debt to settle.
Wha-what?!
Picture this: a young girl chained up in the basement without food or water... being tortured and left to die at the hands of three men.
You-you're talking about a Witch! But- but you're-
That's right.
It was the rare occasion that Shadow Revenge took off his sunglasses to give his paralyzing glare. Against the black of night, it was like watching the windows of hell, and Thomas West had a front row seat.
"I hope you've gotten plenty of sunlight. There's no windows where you're going."
Witch poked his head out of the dressing room, dark and empty. For safe measure, like the Reaper cat wanted, he altered his appearance to that of a rough-edged late twenties fox Mobian with dark eyeshadow and a much tighter getup. The illusion was good enough, but he was wearing thin.
Better get back to Reaper, fast...
He sluggishly made his way to the exit, closer to his destination. Someone was pulling down the back entrance, closing up shop.
"You okay, ma'am?" he asked.
"Fine," he managed, in a grumpy woman's voice. He ducked under the half-closed shutter, waving goodbye to the Mobian before holding his forehead. "'Night."
The Mobian didn't notice the fox stumbling into the bushes and falling against a tree, huffing. Witch slumped to the ground quaking underneath him, the disguise fizzling.
The Reaper cat leapt down, shaking him awake. "Hey! Don't do that," she hissed.
He couldn't show his frustration, too exhausting. "Do... do what..."
"Don't fall asleep! You won't last if you do," she explained, pulling him to his feet. "We need to get you to your other half. Where is he?"
"Re...reaper." Witch started to screech as Blaze squeezed fire into his hand, but she silenced him with the other hand.
"What the *&%#?" he growled, wrenching his hand back. Like touching a hot pie tin, geez!
"You need to stay awake until you get to your other half. Sleep all you want when you're reunited, but not now."
The stinging kept Witch's teeth clench, which helped him ward off the dizziness. If only he knew how far Reaper was...
"Where's the road we came in from? It leads to Elysia," he offered. The cat peered over the bushes, squinting.
"There should be a girl there, too, waiting..."
"I think I see them," Blaze offered, reaching for him. "But they're further down the road, hiding. It's going to be tough to get out of here with you falling asleep." She dissipated her weapon and started to sling Witch over her shoulders. "You'll need to... give us a disguise!" she grunted.
"But... my energy is already..."
"Make me look like something loud and fast," she demanded, before freeing one hand to whistle-
There was a whinnying- then a great burst of light as a horse, black and bay, like embers, struck the ground and sparks flew-
Witch was awake now. "What the *%#$?"
"Phlogeus," Reaper Blaze soothed the beast with the flaming mane and tail, "It's all right." She touched the white bridge on horse's head, and the stallion nickered at her. "It won't be long, I promise you."
"What's going on?" Witch wondered, slipping off the Reaper's back.
"He doesn't like the idea of someone else on his back," she whispered, cooing to the horse, "Especially a Witch."
Witch snorted, and the horse shook itself.
"Disguise us to look like a loud and fast vehicle," Blaze demanded. "We need to get out of this place before someone sees us."
Witch hesitantly mounted the horse that flinched under him. "Okay... I got an idea."
Mobians saw a fire truck blasting out of the city, but it was a horse made of fire and smoke and its blazing rider. A cat made of heavenly fire, Grim Reaper Blaze.