Dawn

Judgement

"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 sun.His 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.