celimunpix

"Easy, easy.... "

Lazarus barked indignantly as he felt an arm lock underneath his stomach, scooping his bound form up onto the sofa with her. At least, he assumed it was the sofa from the soft but solid feel underneath his hind legs.

His legs. Regular, fuckin-

"...Aurhh!?"

A cold, cloying sensation dripped- no, was poured? Onto his head. He felt it pool, then begin to roll down from the crown of his head in thin trickles. It smelled like...- Glue?? But before Lazarus could try to shake it off, he felt a firm hand on his jaw, holding him still.

"Now now, pup~ Hold still, hmm? This won't take long..."

Kindness purred, her voice both close by and separated from him by thick layers of leather already.

"Be a good boy and it'll be over before you know it...~"

The leather should be a layer of insulation, but as the substance was brushed over the whole of the bitchsuited vampire's head, it felt as if the whole thing was soaked. It wasn't really, but glue was a bitch of a thing.

The hand disappeared from his jaw, but almost as soon as it did, Laz felt something push its way past the ring gag in his muzzle and down his throat. The vampire bucked, but he felt a hand on his back holding him still.

He felt resistance at his snout as the gag stopped going deeper, but it had already sealed his damn throat, pressing against his collar from the inside. Panic surged for a brief moment before Laz felt himself pull in a small whistling breath.

Before he could think too hard about it, Lazarus felt firm, strong hands stroking out from his snout. Pressing against every inch of his head. Pushing the glue around- pushing something down against the glue. Against the hood already tight on his head. Against his muzzle.

Every stroke held a ghost impression of her hands in the glue. Clinging. He felt her moving his hair and grunted (could she even hear that?) But her hands moved on, pulling and tightening the hood, smoothing it down around his neck.

Kindness kept her hands there, circling her puppy's throat, watching as he stilled under her. Admiring the smooth, featureless head, as blank as his mind should be.

Once she thought it had cured, the larger vampire stroked her pup's head. She heard a small, almost imperceptable wuff in response and grinned.

"That wasn't so bad, was it? Mmm... Do you think you deserve a treat for being so good?"

Good? Did she say good?

Lazarus tried to nose at her hand, forcing another wuff out through the small hole he still had left. Everything was pressing in against his head and it felt heavy.

"Good boy...."

Kindness hummed, drawing her own blood out into a vial. She mixed another vial in- a sedation and psychedelic mixture to ease her puppy into things, then tilted his head up.

His head lolled back dumbly and she almost laughed. Of course her stupid little puppy was a natural at this.

She tipped him closer, emptying the syringe down the small hole in her pup's otherwise smooth snout.

....Was that blood? Lazarus felt a sluggish, lukewarm liquid drip into his throat and almost on instinct, he sucked at the gag. It didn't taste fresh... was it- was that her blood? Lazarus sucked it down faster, grunting and pawing with the effort.

It didn't taste great, but it felt...- it felt tingly, like a warmth spread out to his limbs while electricity shot down his spine. It hit his tail and felt like it was straining, stretching out-

No. His tail was stretching out. Was growing? Laz heard a far off noise of surprise as his tail brushed up against his m- Kindness' leg. All the way up her leg.

Lazarus' head swiveled around blindly, trying to look for his tail. He could feel it swaying in the air, fur rustling- fur? Of course her had fur... Dogs have fur, don't they? No, he...

Laz tilted his head, looking as curious as a featureless thing could, staring back towards his tail.

"Oh....? Wow puppy, look at you~!"

Kindness reached down, affectionately ruffling his twin tails.

"Really embracing your place now, aren't you?"

‐----------------------------

Permanent puppy offshoot is a go! After all, Kindness DID promise to glue on another hood, eh?

Thief glanced back at the door to the vault. Did she not hear the alarm that triggered? Was she not freaking out about this too? Who fucking cares?

“We gotta go! There’s guards hot on my tail.”

“Did you get it, gorgeous?” Villain purred as if they had all the time in the world. Thief’s nodded and patted his satchel as he half ran towards her. “Good,” she said as she pointed a revolver straight at Thief’s chest. “Hand it over.”

Thief stared at her and scoffed. “Really?!”

“Contact said you were the best, but somebody has to go down for spilling all the heroes naughty little secrets, darling. I’m sure you understand.” She inclined her head. “Toss it over. Quickly now, or neither of us will get away.”

Thief snarled. “Good. I’d rather you go down with me and don’t get these—” Thief stumbled back. His eyes widened slightly as his lips parted dumbly. He glanced down at his left arm. It was strangely cold and oh… oh… there was a hole… in— he glanced up at Villain and her smoking gun.

Did she shoot him?

A warm sensation crawled up his stomach as Villain approached. “Come on Thiefy, you should know never to trust someone in our line of work.”

“I… I don’t… I didn’t trust… you,” he stammered, his mind moving too slow and yet somehow so fast at the same time. Villain was in front of him now, a wicked smile on her face. She patted his cheek lightly before grabbed the strap of his satchel and gently prying it from his body. His hand instinctively reached out for the strap, but he howled and bit his cheek as the bullet wound gushed.

“You should really get that looked at,” Villain told him with a look of faux concern as she opened the bag. She removed the files of the hero identities and dropped his bag to the floor. “By the way, I have the building set to blow in a minute, so don’t be caught in the blast. Toodle-oo.”

Thief stared after Villain as she walked away. “W-wait! You can’t just…” Thief scooped up his bag from the floor and clamped a hand around his shoulder. “You can’t leave me here!”

“I really hope this won’t sour business relationships between us Thiefy, but if you do get caught be sure to tell that dashing Hero that you worked for me. Tell him to call me too, you know my number.” She checked her watch. “Almost out of time. A pleasure, Thief.”

“Villain!” Thief cried as she grabbed the door to the exit. At the same time the door from the vaults opened and a group of angry looking heroes fixed their gaze on the scene. They looked at Villain, then at Thief. Villain smiled as she pushed the door open and disappeared as the heroes descended.

“Wait! Wait! Wait!” Thief cried. Didn’t Villain say something about—? Thief booked it for the door, racing after Villain but the shutters had started to come down and he cursed. He turned to the Heroes and beckoned them with his good arm back towards the vault. “Run!” He cried, taking off in a sprint. “She set the building to—”

A cacophony of sound drowned out Thief’s warning. Explosives rained like bullets in cloisters above them. Thief stared up at the ceiling, his mouth open as the building shook and groaned around them only barely audible through the high pitched ringing in his ears. Dust sifted above them as a chunk of concrete dislodged and dropped from the roof.

After that piece fell, the rest were like dominoes. Most of the heroes had managed to escape down the stairs towards the vault. Number two Hero grabbed Thief’s shirt and yanked him out of the way of a chunk that would have landed straight on his head.

Number Two Hero was shouting something as he pushed Thief towards the door back to the vault. Thief held onto him and dragged the Hero with him. They would be fine. The stairs were concrete, if they could just go and hide under the stairs they may just—

Hero dragged Thief’s arm down suddenly like an anvil had hit him. Thief recoiled, pulling back, but it didn’t save him and he crashed to the ground with Hero. It was hard to see in the dust but he could feel the ground beneath him, and so he shot his arm out and felt around for Hero, coughing at the dust and soot and stench of gunpowder on the air.

He found Hero’s arm and traced it up, waving smoke out of the way. Then he saw Hero. More importantly he saw the chunk of debris that had caught Hero’s leg, and pinned him under rubble.

“Hero,” he said, though he could barely hear himself. “Hey! Hero! Hero!” He slapped Hero’s face lightly, but the Hero was out cold. Thief looked around for any sort of levy he could use to try and move the concrete from the Hero’s legs. He glanced back at the door that was so close to safety… then back at Hero. At his shirt that Hero had grabbed to drag Thief to safety.

He had to do something! He had to help Hero! He couldn’t just leave him here to be crushed or die. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself.

“Fuck!” Thief exclaimed. He scrambled to his feet. The explosions had died down within the first minute or so, but the building had only stopped rumbling and shaking around them, the dust settled over the rubble, exposing the smoke filled sky to Thief. “What the fuck—” he wheezed as he walked around to Hero’s crushed legs. “—are you doing, you idiot? They’ll let you rot in a cell for this and throw away the key!”

When Thief bent to inspect the damage, he was relieved to see only one of Hero’s legs had born the weight of the roof. It was also levied on other piles of rubble, so hopefully the damage wasn’t too severe.

If Thief worked quickly then he could probably make sure Hero was safe as a thank you for saving him, and escape before there was even a distant wail of—

Thief blanched. In the distance he could hear them; sirens.

Son of a bitch! Fucking, stupid, stupid, stupid—

He frowned at the unnerving silence of the building. Shouldn’t the other heroes be up here by now? Did they make it to the vault? Hide under the stairs? Did they somehow collapse and they were stranded in a pit with no exit?

Thief grabbed a chunk of the roof in his hands and heaved it up and off of Hero’s leg. The only part that was actually pinning Hero to the ground. Only he didn’t expect Hero to wake up screaming, crying, cursing and wailing somehow all at once.

“It’s okay!” Thief said, running back around to Hero’s face. “It’s okay! You’re okay.”

Hero’s pain filled gaze turned incredulous, then suspicious. “You— you… you’re the thief…”

Thief offered a watery smile. “Guilty. Look, I think we should prop you up against something.”

Hero heaved his words out through exhausted lips. “You… you’re… didn’t— run.”

“You saved me,” Thief said quietly. “I couldn’t leave you to die.”

Hero put a hand flat on the ground and started to push himself up, groaning and wincing as he went. Thief’s eyes widened, alarmed. “Hey! Maybe you should—”

Hero grunted with the effort until he was sitting upright beside Thief. He coughed out smoke, wheezing a little with his inhale. “You sh— you should go,” Hero told him.

Thief’s eyes widened. “What?”

Hero groaned, pulling his leg straight to assess the damage. “Go,” he ground out through clenched teeth. “Who has the list?”

Thief slackened. “Villain…”

“Fuck…” Hero said. He ran his hands through his hair. “Okay. Thanks. Now go, you won’t get another chance.”

“But I—”

“I will arrest you in five seconds,” Hero suggested. “How bout that? Ready? Five.”

Thief got to his feet, bag in his hands. He threw the strap over his shoulder and went for the gap in the wall that would let him escape out the back way of the vault. Into the trees, to safety.

“Thanks Hero,” he said before he left.