"I'm back, Wocky! Guess what? They had waffles down there! I may have eaten a few before I got up here, but that's not important!"
Zuma quickly scampered inside the room, bringing back some food he'd snuck from the kitchen. He wagged his tail and jumped up on the bed where he'd last seen his boyfriend. "Wocky….?" The pup was nowhere to be seen.
The bed's still warm… he must've left a short while ago… Zuma sat down and looked around, not setting anything.
"Wocky….? Where are ya, boy?" He felt a rush of cold air on the back of his neck and whipped around, claws drawn. Then immediately screamed. Well, he tried to scream. He became too terrified to make a sound. A large, white, flowing figure appeared, smiling at him devilishly. It was in the shape of a pup, and it flicked Zuma's ear with a misty, swirling, translucent paw.
"Hey, Zuuuummmaaaa…." It breathed in a hollow, echoing voice. "Looking for someooonnneeee….?"
Zuma immediately froze in fear. He looked at the ghost with big eyes, petrified. He immediately collapsed on the bed, trembling so badly he couldn't even stand up anymore. "Nonono, not ghosts…!" The poor pup shut his eyes tightly and tried to convince himself that if he couldn't see it, then the ghost couldn't see him. "Please don't huwt me…!" He heard a soft sigh and warm breath tickling his ears.
"You can open your eyes now, Zuma." Rocky's voice? But~ Zuma risked opening an eye and saw his boyfriend's familiar snout. He immediately jumped up and hid behind him.
"Are you sure he's gone? It was a g-gh-ghost…!" He whimpered. He buried his snout in Rocky's back and sniffed. "I was weally scawed~" His final words came out a little muffled and Rocky winced.
"Yeaaahhhh…." Rocky scratched the back of his head. "Maybe I wanted to have a little fun and scare you? Heh heh heh…" Zuma snapped his head up and let go of his friend, pacing around to face him. Rocky blushed ashamedly and looked away.
"Apologise." Zuma said, slightly pissed.
"Sowwy, Zumi." Rocky replied, risking a glance. Zuma smiled at him sweetly and gave him an adorable look.
"And I'm sowwy for knocking you off the bed."
"Huh? But you didn't~" Zuma lifted his paw and blasted Rocky off the bed and into the opposite wall without even looking up. Rocky hit the wall pretty hard and slumped to the ground, soaking wet.
"Now we're even." Zuma said calmly, treading a circle on the bed and laying down. Rocky groaned and stood up, holding out his forearms.
"Wet." He said, cringing. "Y'know, just because I'm not afraid of water anymore when I'm with you doesn't mean I like getting wet."
"And I didn't like being scared to death. Oh well, I guess we can't always have what we want~" Rocky huffed and drew a paw across his body, pulling all the water off of him and turning it into steam absentmindedly. Zuma looked at him quizzically.
"You seem really active today, how do ya feel?" Rocky smiled.
"Really great! I'm a bit hungry though, so if you don't mind…." Rocky found the bag of food Zuma had brought him and scarfed it down rather quickly, licking his lips after it was gone. Zuma was over the moon. He's hungry…. And he's eating! Yes! Zuma, you rule!
Rocky was coming along quite well and Zuma expected him to make a full recovery. Rocky also looked different. He always seemed to glow faintly, like the first morning rays of the paw steps were light and the marks of fear and worry that had previously been etched into his snout had smoothed out perfectly.
The mix yawned and jumped up beside Zuma. Zuma playfully cuffed him over the nose and Rocky scratched his tummy, causing him to stretch out and sigh.
"Yeeeeaahhhh… that's the spot…" Rocky laid down on his side and looked Zuma in the eyes. As Zuma looked, he felt himself getting drawn in, like a magical force. Rocky's liquid green eyes seemed to swirl with magical energy. It was like a siren's long, the longer you listened, the harder it was to stop; the more you looked, the harder it was to look away.
Suddenly feeling mischievous, Rocky trailed his paws slowly over Zuma's sides, leaving behind trails of fire in his lover's blood. Zuma squirmed and wiggled, the feeling so pleasant he couldn't take very much of it at once.
"Ngghhh…." He breathed out, and began panting as his pelt became warmer and warmer. Rocky forcibly held him down and licked his cheek.
"Having trouble staying still?" He said innocently, as Zuma kicked his hindpaws.
"Oh… you… little….~" Zuma finally managed to get his forearms around Rocky and he flipped him over, having a split second to revel in his triumph before Rocky rolled over again, refusing to let his boyfriend win. Soon the small room was filled with his happy yelps as the pups play-fought on the bed, rolling around and gently nipping each other.
Rocky finally managed to pin Zuma under him, and he panted hard, satisfied he'd won. Zuma huffed, but wagged his tail good-naturedly.
"Alright, alright, you win…!" He spat playfully. "Now get off of me!" Rocky nodded and helped him up, nuzzling his neck.
"I think it's time to go now, Zuma." He whispered. "We shouldn't stay here any longer, and I'm fine now." Zuma sighed and nodded his head.
"So what's the plan now?" Rocky smiled devilishly.
"I have a few ideas. First thing we need to do is get back home, I don't think this area is being searched anymore. It's been surprisingly quiet. It'll be nice to see everyone again, too. After we make sure everyone is safe, we're gonna lay a trap for Jason."
"A trap? What do ya mean?!" Zuma bounced around just a little bit in excitement.
"Hush. Now, Jason keeps getting away with his actions because he can't be caught. He covers up his tracks and brainwashes anyone who finds the evidence. However, I've been working on a way to reverse that effect. See, telepathic connections work by connection with your brainwaves, altering them to match your own brainwaves. Once the connection is established, you can control the other person as long as your mind is strong enough to keep up the connection. Now, there are numerous things you could do to break this connection, but the~" Zuma sighed and put a paw over Rocky's maw.
"The showt vewsion, lovey, the showt one." Rocky laughed nervously.
"Yeah… sorry….! Basically, if you mess up the brainwave's frequency, you'll break the connection." Zuma looked at him with a blank, quizzical look.
"In English, por favor?"
"I'm gonna build a machine that will take Jason's powers away." Rocky groaned and rolled his eyes at the over-simplification.
The lights turned on in Zuma's eyes and he yipped happily. "You can do that?! AWESOME!" Rocky's heart couldn't help but melt at seeing his boyfriend so excited.
"Yeah, it is! But there's something else… I need to get him to come to Adventure Bay personally. I'm gonna trick him into confessing his crimes against us, and against all those other animals, then make sure he never sees the light of day again." Zuma exhaled, relieved.
"For a second, I thought you were gonna try to kill him." Rocky snorted. "He's evil, yes, but he's not worth death. He should live to suffer out his remaining years in captivity. A fitting punishment, doncha think?" He shook his head. "But first things first, we've gotta get out of here. Come on, lovey, let's go."
"For some reason it seems like it's taking longer to get back this time…" Zuma complained after a while, dragging his paws in the dirt.
"Gee, I wonder why? You were only being carried the whole time, sleeping rather peacefully if I remember correctly." Rocky responded dryly.
"Can you just… idk… magic us there or something? Wassa point in unlimited power if you don't ever use it?" Zuma asked for the umptenth time.
"I've told you this before, Zuma. I don't like using my powers, alright? There are too… too raw, too destructive. Sure, they are amazing, but total power brings total corruption. I'm not god, Zuma, and I don't wanna live like one. My father passed this gift to me… but look at what it's done. It seems like everytime I meddle with the supernatural, something terrible happens~"
Zuma was silent for a while. I never thought he'd hate his powers, I thought they were kinda cool. I guess they were at first, but now they've just made him a target…
Rocky suddenly stopped short, sitting down on the roadside abruptly. He took off his puptag and stared at it sadly. He knew he shouldn't have stopped, but he couldn't resist the feeling of self-pity and ignored the warning. Thoughts, memories, feelings…. All the happy times he'd had with his friends, the joy of being on a loving team, the satisfaction of a good rescue, he remembered all these things sadly, wishing he could change things back to the way they were.
He stared at the symbol engraved on his tag and suddenly growled in anger, ripping it off viciously and throwing it onto the ground. It burst into a thousand metal shards and flew all over the ground. Zuma, who had been watching this in anxious silence, got a little scared.
"Uhhh… Wocky?" Rocky snapped his head up and looked at Zuma with fire burning in his eyes.
"It's the tags, Zuma. HOW was I that stupid?!" Rocky slammed his paw on the ground and the earth shook, creating hairline cracks that threatened to rupture completely.
"Whoa, whoa! Wocky, calm down…!" Zuma said, now slightly scared of him. Rocky shook his head.
"Why did it occur to none of us that our tags are literal tracking devices?" He said, with no emotion or feeling whatsoever. Zuma opened his mouth, then closed it, hesitating. "We've been wearing these things this whole time… and it never came to my mind!"
He began pacing the ground, flicking his tail aggressively. "All this time when we thought we were moving secretly, someone has been watching the whole time! This entire time since escaping from Jason, he's known where we were." Zuma was listening intently, but started hearing a whirring noise. He looked up and gasped.
"Uh, Wo..Woc…Wocky?" He stuttered, tugging at his paw. Rocky pushed him away and continued his ranting.
"Not now, Zuma, I'm thinking! Now, if Jason knew where we were the whole time, he must've waited to attack us…. Like, blowing up the train tracks while we were all asleep!"
"Wocky!" Zuma shouted more earnestly, whining a little.
I said not now! Now listen to me, alright?" Rocky huffed in annoyance and went back to stressing. "He knew the whole time… how much does he know? Why didn't he attack us sooner…? We've been gone for a while and we met no resistance leaving…. It was too easy… too quick…! He must know where we are now, which means… we're probably walking right into a trap…." Rocky jerked his head up and noticed for the first time how open the roadside was. The road itself was a ways away, but the terrain was completely flat. Nowhere to hide… nowhere to run… oh, no…
Zuma growled and slapped Rocky right in the snout.
"Aye! What the hell~!"
"Shut up and listen! Don't you hear that whirring noise? Or are you still too busy listening to your own monologue?" Zuma snapped sarcastically. Rocky suddenly took his paw of his stinging nose and looked up, then pinned his ears flat to his head. In a moment, a swarm of helicopters circled the area, and Rocky could hear the sound of sirens approaching… fast.
"Aww, dammit." Rocky muttered. "He's always one step ahead… I HATE that guy…"
"Now really isn't the time for that! Now it's time to run!" Rocky shook his head and held his trembling boyfriend close to him.
"Not this time, Zuma. I think it's time I stopped running from this anyways… they aren't the enemy, remember? They are just doing their job…. It's my fault anyways, I lied to Copycat to avoid this, but if I had just told the truth the first time… maybe things wouldn't have turned out like this? I'm gonna go with them, alright? I'll try to explain everything to them."
"But, Wocky, they'll kill you!" Zuma sobbed, hiding his snout in Rocky's chest. "There is no way they'll understand… people died over this, Wocky… they won't forget that!"
"But, Zuma, if I can fix this, then we'll have one less thing to worry about…! Then we can focus on getting everything back to normal."
A spotlight flashed on from overhead and drowned Rocky in a solid beam of light. He squinted slightly but didn't move away. The police and federal agents alike had long since reached the area, and advanced slowly on the dog, not sure what to expect since the mix wasn't fighting back.
"Do not worry!" Rocky shouted at them, gritting his teeth. "I won't fight you. On one condition…" He looked at Zuma and sighed. "I want you to leave him alone. He has nothing to do with what I've done. He only came with me because he's my friend, and a very good one at that. He won't fight you either, and he won't come after me. Just please, let him go, and I'll make this easy on everyone~"
The men seemed to relax slightly and they whispered amongst themselves.
"What?! No, no, Wocky, don't make me leave you! I'll get scared!" Zuma begged, clinging onto Rocky's pelt tightly. Rocky swallowed hard, but shook his head.
"I'll be fine, Zuma. I need you to get back and have Marcus help you build the device I told you about. Ryder too, they are both very good at figuring these kinds of things out. I'll be back soon, whether they release me willingly or not. Nothing could keep me away from you, Zuma. Nothing at all." The words sounded hollow to Rocky's heart, but sincere to Zuma's ears.
"Alright, we'll let the other one go if you step forward and let us take you willingly." The harsh amplification of a megaphone made Rocky wince, but he shook his head quickly.
"I love you, Zuma." He whispered, kissing his cheek before scampering away. He took a deep breath and put his paws up. There was a brief moment of hesitation, as the men were a little stunned at how easily that went, but they quickly recovered and one step forward, placing perfectly shaped pawcuffs around Rocky's forepaws. Custom made? That's new~
A soft breeze began to blow, ruffing the grass and Rocky's fur alike. And he turned once to look at Zuma again sadly. His vision started blurring and he felt weak. He fell off his hindpaws and onto the ground, shaking his head rapidly.
"What the~" He mumbled, looking at his cuffs again. They looked like normal metal ones… except for one difference. They have small veins glowing red through them, which were greedily sucking in Rocky's energy.
But that's Bloodstone… no one knows about that but… Jason… how do THEY have it? A man picked Rocky up and pushed him into a cage made with the same glowing red material.
"Alright, we've got him. We're ready for you to bring him up." One of them barked into a radio. Rocky heard the wince of a lowering winch, much like the sound of Skye's which she used during rescue missions. The sound was almost comforting, and they brought back a flood of memories. The draining sensation from his pawcuffs also seemed to drain the stress from his body, and he smiled, thinking of all the happy times with his friends before everything changed.
He was soon lifted up into the flying machine and placed on the floor roughly.
"Alright, we've got him. Now shoot the labrador." He heard through the radios of the men on board. That snapped Rocky back to reality.
"WHAT!? WAIT WAIT WAIT, STOP, WE HAD A DEAL!" He barked, completely in shock.
"Ahhh, don't take it personally. You kill some of ours, we kill some of yours. Besides, with him being your best friend and all, who else would be more loyal to you? No, it's better that we leave him dead."
"You can't do this! Let me out!" Rocky howled, though the action was futile. He covered his ears and cried, but nothing could block out the sound of gunshots ringing and the next voice over the radio:
"We've got him. Target has been eliminated."
He's dead. He's dead. He's head. Over and over these words rang in Rocky's mind as grief and pain were suddenly, forcefully repealed and replaced by raw, pure anger. The sky above grew dark and thunder boomed. Lightning sliced through the air and struck the ground, sending waves of electricity through everyone standing on it.
Rocky kicked the door of his cage open with brute force and scampered out it. When he hit the floor, the entire aircraft shook from the impact.
"We have a problem, the prisoner is trying to escape…!"
"Knock him out then. We have to bring him back alive." Said another voice over the radio. Someone stepped forward and stabbed a neddle into Rocky's side. Rocky winced in pain and immediately felt sleepy. Nature stopped rebelling and everything went back to normal….for a split second. Rocky felt his body heat up as it burned through the drug rapidly. His eyes snapped open and he barked in defiance.
"You murdered my boyfriend in cold blood! You had no reason but your sick, twisted minds! For that action, none of you will leave this place alive!" The cuffs around his paws cracked suddenly, as his amulet began to glow, feeding Rocky more and more power until nothing, Bloodstone or no, could hold him back. The metal shattered like glass and Rocky shook his paws out. The men were shocked for a moment, but leveled their guns and fired quickly. Except… nothing happened. The weapons ripped from their hands and crushed into a mangled ball of metal by and unseen force.
Rocky shouted at them angrily and his pelt became engulfed in green, magical fire. The fire slowly spread along the floor, igniting anything it came in contact too, as Rocky brought hell to his best friend's murderer's. He looked at them is disgust as they burned alive, their screams and cries for mercy falling on deaf ears. In a brilliant flash of light, Rocky was gone from there and back on the ground.
He took a deep, shuddering breath as his anger began running out, leaving only pain and grief in its place. He stared at the sky and formed a huge thunderstorm. As it grew in intensity, the winds picked up to near hurricane speeds, and the entire sky was electrified.
The survivors from the first lightning strike picked themselves off of the ground, and immediately began running away, shouting at each other to get away. Magical fire spread from Rocky's paws and ran after them, creating a wall around the survivors.
"Where do you think you're going?" Rocky whispered, his two two flickering flames. "No one murders my boyfrend and lives to tell the tale~"
Rocky mentally looked up at the semi-destroyed aircrafts in the sky, and struck them down one by one with a bolt of lightning. What remained afterwards, he sent to the ground at a high speed, smashing into the ground and killing everyone in the circle of fire instantly.
When nothing was left but ashes and smoke, Rocky snapped back to reality, his vengeful spirit contained again. He ran to Zuma's side and looked at him in shock. Bullet holes lined his body. Though none had hit him in his vitals, he was dying from blood loss. Zuma's body was still warm, but Rocky couldn't feel his heartbeat anymore.
"I'm so sorry, Zuma…! I never should've left you…!" Rocky cried in anguish, his tears mixing with Zuma's blood. "I told you everything would be okay! And it wasn't and you… now we'll never…" Rocky couldn't finish, and he hugged his dying boyfriend tightly, not caring about the blood at now stained his pelt. He cried into his neck, wishing he'd never left him alone.
Rocky's mourning was cut short, as his amulet began glowing again. He softly let go of Zuma and stared at in angrily.
"What do you want?!" He screamed, tears coming to his eyes again. He opened his mouth to scream more, but stopped as something started to happen. Small sparkles of golden parchment were materializing in the air, and they came together slowly at his paws. It took Rocky a moment to figure out what it was. Marshall's healing charm! I forgot I even had this!
"Marshall, I love you!" Rocky howled happily. He took his claws and cut a shallow wound on his arm. Dark red blood trickled down it, and he let his warm lifeblood stain the parchment, then touched Zuma's dying body with his other paw and concentrated hard.
The parchment glowed dark red and turned into a scarlet colored dust. It fell on Zuma's body like snow and the lab's wounds began closing up quickly. His entire pelt shimmered for a while, then the light faded. Rocky placed his ear on Zuma's chest and heard a faint heartbeat that was growing stronger every minute.
"He's gonna be okay…." Rocky whispered. As the realization hit him of how close he'd come to losing his boyfriend, Rocky had a complete nervous breakdown. He began crying out of of fear, more specifically, terror. I couldn't protect him… I believed in the goodness of humanity, and Zuma paid the price. I told him I'd be fine… but I never said he would be…
Quiet murmuring broke him out of his thoughts, and he shook Zuma gently.
"Zuma? Are you okay?" Zuma nodded his head sleepily but didn't say anything. His fur still sparkled a little, and he fell into a deep sleep. Rocky smiled softly and stoked Zuma's side gently. "Come on, lovey. Let's get home~" Rocky sighed sadly and took Zuma's puptag off, and realized for the first time that their marks we're covered up anymore.
It'll be just peachy explaining this to the others… but it's too risky to keep this. I'm sorry, Zuma. I'll make you a better one when all this is over.
He curled his toes over the device, ready to crush it, but stopped. It won't work forever, but this can buy us some time for a while. Rocky quickly dashed to the roadside, where cars were still flying down the highway. He rubbed his paws together, then magnetized the tag before throwing it onto the side of the vehicle going in the opposite direction.
"There. If you wanna follow a trail of smoke, follow that." Rocky watched the cars for a while before running back to his still sleeping boyfriend. He wiggled under the dog and stood up, Zuma's breathing and familiar weight grounding him. He started the long trek back home, this time, with no fear of being followed.
Night had fallen by the time the Lookout came into view again. Zuma had woken up briefly a few times, but the Marshall's magic was still keeping him asleep. It was rather dull traveling, but Rocky had plenty to think about now that he had a moment to breathe again.
When he came to the Lookout, he went straight to Marshall's puphouse and knocked on the door. Marshall was up in an instant and opened the door quickly.
"Rocky? Zuma? You two are back!" Marshall whisper-shouted. He cocked his head quizzically. "And you two are both covered in blood~"
"Shhhhhh~" Rocky whispered. "I'll explain everything in the morning. I just need some rest right now." Seeing the utterly exhausted look on Rocky's snout, Marshall stepped aside and let Rocky in, closing the door softly. When he turned around he found Rocky was already fast asleep literally 2 feet from the door. He got an old blanket and placed it over him.
"Goodnight, Rocky…"
Hello guys! Sorry this update took so long, I got busy with other things. Anywaysssss…..
The end of this story is coming up pretty soon! This was one of the last really major chapters for setting up the ending (character development and whatnot). I have no idea when the next update will be, but it won't be before I update Pups And The War For Puplantis. So all of you guys who really wanted to see an update on that, keep your eyes open, mkay?
That's all for today! As always, thank you all for your comments, and your feedback (negative or positive, as long as it's constructive. Helps me become a better writer) I always read all your comments, and I love hearing from you guys!
See you guys in the next one!
Peace out!