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A Slippery Identity

Part 2

For Taiko

By Draconicon

"Run!"

Gus suited words to action, jumping over the first leather strap that tried to grab his ankle and backflipping off of the second. With the magic that the drake was using to animate them, they had just enough stiffness to give him the chance to jump off of them.

He landed on the bed, only for the sheets to start wrapping around his ankles. The lion flexed his toes, clawing at them until there were enough gaps for him to kick them away. The ropes had followed him, slithering like snakes along the edges of the bed. Gus rolled back, pulling his guitar back over his shoulder as he glanced at his comrade.

Thimas was doing almost as well, having leaped off of the ground and backflipped until he landed on one of the chairs on the far side of the room. The badger's bare foot slipped on a dildo, and he slumped back against the head of the chair.

"What in the hells is going on?!" Thimas shouted.

"I'll tell you in a minute, just get the fuck out of here!"

Again, he suited words to action, grabbing one of Kaito's pillows and slapping the different bondage tools away from his face and his chest. The first time this happened, he'd ended up getting hog-tied and suspended from the ceiling, held there and fucked far longer than he wanted to think about. That was not happening again if he could help it.

The badger was ahead of him, this time. The older man threw the dildo on the chair at what had been Kaito, and while the drake was distracted, threw himself into a tumbling roll between the other man's legs. It was kind of amazing the older man still had that sort of mobility, but Gus wasn't about to question it at this point.

As soon as there was a gap in the leather snake bindings, he jumped. The drake grabbed for him, almost throwing him off his game, but he managed to twist and turn as any feline could. He landed harder than he liked, but he kept running.

They were both out of the kitchen and running for the front door when the couches exploded in springs and traps. Collars of all sorts, blue, black, red, brown lunged for their necks, and both badger and lion reacted in the only way that they knew how.

They seized their instruments and started playing.

Gus slammed his fingers down the strings of his guitar, the soundwave sending a shockwave through the apartment. The collars went flying back against the wall, and when they tried to rise again, Thimas dragged his bow across his violin. A great, evil hiss of sound rippled through the air, and even the lion winced, turning his head to try and block one ear against his shoulder.

"Man, you gotta tune that thing. Owwww!"

"It worked, didn't it?"

The different collars were writhing on the floor, twitching and turning and twisting as if they were dogs that had just been abused badly. It was enough to give them an opening, and the two musicians bolted for the front door.

Gus got out first, the naked lion twisting about. He whipped his head left, right -

"This way!"

He pulled Thimas along, running for the elevator. The badger yelped as he was dragged along, with little choice in the matter but to follow. Gus would have been rather happy about that if it hadn't been such a desperate moment. More often than not, he was in Thimas's position, and it was a nice chance for some role reversal.

The different apartment doors were slamming shut behind them as they ran along, and no surprise there. Ever since this new guy came out, he'd been hitting up everyone that he could for a bit of fun. Sometimes, it was done with consent, other times...well, consent was always given, but it could be a matter of when.

Slam, slam, slam went the different apartment doors, and Gus rounded the corner with Thimas in tow just as the drake's shadow spread across the balcony hallway.

"The elevator's the other way!" the badger protested.

"Not anymore. It moved."

"How do you know?"

"I've been running away from him for the last few weeks! I figured out when the city shifts."

And the elevator was right there, just as he thought. The lion reached for the button -

Only for it to turn into a doorknob at the last second. He cursed under his breath, then looked back to the corner. The shadow was getting bigger and bigger, and a soft humming filled the air. Not a classical, soft hum, but one that was filled with the thrashing, powerful beats of a rock band.

Fuck, fuck, fuck...I am not getting a collar on me again.

Knowing how the elevator bounced around, it was now likely on the other side of the building. They could try running around the balcony until they could double-back, or...Gus glanced over the side of the balcony, then looked back at the badger.

"You think you can fly without the cloak?"

"Are you going to give me a choice?"

"Not really!"

The badger sighed.

"You better be able to float me down. I'm not as spry as you are."

"Obviously! Jump!"

The pair of them leaped from the side of the building, and Gus whipped his guitar back out. They had fallen three floors already, and the ground was approaching quickly.

Ain't gonna be as good as it would be if Greta was here, but...

The lion slammed his fingers down the chords, and the soundwave blasted down hard enough to slow their fall. Not enough to stop it, but enough to keep them from breaking something or dying on the way down.

Thimas was 'helping,' as far as the badger's style of music could do, but all it did was give the lion more energy, more stamina to keep playing as hard as he could. They were still falling, they were still dropping, and they were still right on track for -

SPLASH!

Both musicians slowly bobbed up to the surface of a pool that hadn't been there just a second ago. The lion spit out a mouthful of chlorinated water, and Thimas fixed him with a glare.

"...What? What? We got out, didn't we?"

"Do you know how many of these cases are waterproof?" the badger asked.

"...No?"

"None!"

Bonk! The violin case came down hard on his head, and the lion yelped as he was chased out of the pool by a very, very angry badger.

The pair of them finally stopped their little cartoon chase in a café just across from NABSC, Gus having water and Thimas having coffee. The two of them were still dripping wet, and they got curious glances from everyone that stepped in and out of the smaller establishment.

It didn't help that the badger had to strip down after they'd arrived. With all the thick clothes he wore, there was no way that they'd dry while he wore them, so he was left in nothing but his briefs. Well-stretched briefs, too, which all the staff members seemed to be more than happy to stare at as they walked by.

For his part, Gus was used to being stared at for being naked. Nobody had bothered asking them to leave yet, so as long as they didn't make a big deal, neither would he. Shaking his head, he sipped at his water while Thimas calmed himself down.

"So...now that we're done with the shenanigans for the moment." Thimas pushed his cup slightly to the side. "Would you mind explaining what in the hell we just ran from?"

"Kami."

"Other than that being a word for a god-like being, that tells me very little." The badger leaned back. "Why don't you tell me how this started in the first place?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out. I mean, I read people, but I'm not the theory master you are."

"Then tell me the details, and I'll figure it out."

Shrugging, Gus leaned back in his chair. His dick brushed against his thighs, reminding him to flop it over one for comfort, which he did. The lion brushed out his mane a bit as he thought back to how it all started.

"Well, you know how it goes. I end up traveling all over the place, and I need to find a place to crash. Sam and Darl - remember them?"

"Of course."

"They were going to house me, but they didn't have the space this time. Something about the landlord doing a remodel. So, I was gonna stay with their landlord, but that didn't work out. Something about discovering himself and not wanting temptations." He chuckled. "I was kind of proud of that, actually. Being a temptation."

"Yes, I'm sure. Details."

"Yeah, yeah." He shook his head. "Anyway, I ended up coming to Kaito for a bit of help, thinking that he might be able to put me up for a bit. I found out that he was a bit of a kinky guy, and I thought that we could, you know, have some fun."

"I'm guessing that things got out of hand."

"And then some. There was...a bit of alcohol involved...and some songs."

"...How many songs?"

"...Somewhere between twenty and fifty? I think?"

The badger facepalmed, and he couldn't entirely blame the older man. The both of them had power to their music, and while that power varied from one song to another, and one style to another, it generally affected the mind more than it did the world around them.

And I did a number on Kaito's mind, that's for sure...

"That's why I asked about him having magic. I mean, he didn't use it before, but that back there? That had to be magic."

"It was. Basic magic, very basic, but certainly powerful for all that," the badger admitted. "I would not want to put myself against it."

"That started a night or two after I did all that. He started doing that whole color-changing thing, and then acted all...rough. Dominant. Like a dragon that was just figuring out that he could have whatever he wanted because he was strong enough to take it."

"That's not good."

"He started calling me 'kitten.'"

"Well, compared to him..."

That had been one of the most humiliating nights of his life. Erotic, too, admittedly, but definitely humiliating, and not one that he wanted to go back to if he had the slightest choice in the matter. He rubbed the back of his neck just thinking about it, almost swearing that he could already feel the collar again, rubbing, grinding against his flesh.

That night had been insane. He had been bound up, trussed up like some sort of toy, and he had only barely managed to wiggle free when Kami had turned his attention to something else for a few minutes. A pizza delivery boy, if he remembered right, though it might have been a student, too. Hard to remember that night.

"I got out, and while he was chasing me, I managed to get one of his neighbor's attentions and get them together."

"So, you decided to use one of his neighbors as a shield."

"It worked! He went into their room instead of chasing after me."

"I see...And this continued?"

"Well, I guess it did. I kinda spent the next few weeks laying low, hoping it'd work its way out of his system."

"It obviously didn't."

"Heh, no. Really, really no."

That had been a wake-up call. He'd gone up to see Kaito again, and sure enough, the drake had been there, more than willing to accommodate him for a night. They had shared a civilized discussion, and then called it a night, with Gus sleeping on the couch and the drake taking the bed.

However, no sooner had the drake fallen asleep than the color change started again. Gus had high-tailed it out of there as soon as the kitten collar had come out, the leather straps following him down the hall and almost managing to get him before he got in the elevator.

"He's getting stronger," he admitted as he explained the situation. "The first two times, I was able to calm him down, slow him down with my music. Then he started to push through it. Now...Now, he's basically immune to it, even if the collars aren't."

"You don't pick the easy problems, do you?"

"No, but neither do you."

Shaking his head, Gus sat back in his chair, taking a few deep breaths as he looked up at the ceiling. Dinner had not gone as planned. With how tired Kaito had looked, he'd hoped for the drake to drop off and stay out for a bit longer, giving him time to explain the situation. Instead, Kami had come out almost immediately, sending them fleeing across the city into a café.

And naked, for that matter. Not that he minded it, but he could tell that Thimas was a bit irked at having to sit in the middle of a restaurant, his instruments almost totally ruined, in nothing but his underwear. The white cloth had turned almost completely transparent, too, putting the badger's nethers on display in a very different way.

Appealing, really, but probably not what Thimas wanted to be doing right at that point.

"So, what do you think happened?" Gus asked. "I've been trying to figure it out, but you know me. This isn't my forte."

"You should have called me weeks ago, you know that?"

"I did! You never picked up the phone."

"Water under the bridge..."

"Water under your balls, you mean..."

"Do you want my help, or not?"

"I don't know. Do you want to actually solve the problem or make fun of me for starting it in the first place?"

"...If I had one good instrument..."

"Well, ya don't."

"No thanks to you."

"Tell you what. You help me fix this, I'll buy you something."

"You better. This was your fault...and it's not going to be an easy fix, either."

"No..." Gus sighed, leaning back in his chair and rubbing his eyes. "So, what happened, you think?"

This was the most annoying part of the whole process: asking Thimas for help. All his life, the lion had heard about how the dedicated study of music was integral to making a living with his passion, and he had always fought back by managing to wing it at every turn. Well, most every turn. The magic in his guitar helped a lot.

But now, he had to ask for help from the one person in his life that had always pushed the superiority of his style of music over the lion's own. Everyone else had gradually admitted that his style had its merits, while Thimas...

Goddamn...

He crossed his arms over his chest, hiding his irritation as he waited for the badger to answer him. Even the fact that the pair of them were getting eyeballed by a number of passing staff and café customers wasn't enough to take the tension out of the moment for him. Even that was more annoying, knowing that they still had a half-god thing to take care of only a few blocks away.

Gus was just about to push Thimas - or maybe push his balls under the table - when the badger finally sighed.

"Well, you certainly didn't do yourself any favors by playing music your way around someone like Kaito."

"Excuse me? What the hell is wrong with music 'my' way?"

"You blow people's minds out of their heads, Gus. Even you admit that."

"...Well, yeah, that's part of what I do."

"And when you have a conscious mind suppressing a great deal of energy, and that suppression is not there any longer, what do you think happens?"

"...Uh...Guessing it's kinda like a dam breaking in front of a river?"

"Thankfully, we don't have that problem. Yet." The badger looked out the window at the NABSC, shaking his head. "If it was all out, we wouldn't have gotten away. He would have been able to snare us with that level of power. No, there's still enough of him locked away that we can probably put it back...if we can get close enough to start working our powers on him."

"That's the problem. He's out until morning, and I swear he's staying out longer each time."

"How much longer?"

"Well...last time, he was out until about ten, and the time before that, until about 9:45."

"And until then, he's going to be looking for new prey."

Sighing, Thimas leaned into his hands, rubbing his forehead and shaking his head. Gus couldn't blame him. It wasn't a good situation.

Not to mention that the entire building was probably on lockdown, and the different residents were probably calling the landlord, or the cops, or...well, probably anyone. Hell, if they called a superhero, he wouldn't have been surprised. The city seemed to be chock full of them.

Then again, if Kami managed to get his hands on a superhero or supervillain and keep them as a pet...

Gus shook his head, shivering. That was not a thought that bore experimentation.

"So, how are we going to get him back to normal, then?" Gus asked. "I don't think we have time to wait for Kaito to come back out."

"Do you have any cash on you?"

"Do you see any pockets in this vest?"

"I assumed you carried some up your ass. Otherwise, how were you going to replace all those?" the badger asked, gesturing to the waterlogged instrument cases at the side of the table.

"Well..."

"...You were just going to play the shop owner's brains out again, weren't you?"

"Hey, it works!"

"For now. What happens when you run into someone like Kami again?"

"Well, let's hope I don't, then, huh? Or maybe that I'll have Greta with me."

"Speaking of, where is she?"

"Istanbul."

"Istanbul?!"

"She's taking a class in belly-dancing, and wanted to get the authentic stuff from the Middle East to India," Gus said, shaking his head. "I don't know why."

"Well, then, I guess -"

"Excuse me, sirs?"

Grateful for the distraction, Gus whipped his head around to face the white fox cashier. The vulpine employee held out a phone, gesturing at him.

"I'm sorry, but, uh, we have a phone call for...um, 'Kitten.'"

To say that the lion's cheeks burned would be to say that the sun was a bit warm. Gus couldn't form words for a few seconds, eventually reaching for the phone out of desperation more than anything else. He held it to his ear, and the first thing he heard was the soft hiss of leather on leather, something being pulled tight on the other end of the phone.

"Yes?"

"Oh, there you are, Kitten. I'm disappointed. You ran off before I could put your collar back on."

"I hate that thing. And my name's Gus," he muttered, blushing as Thimas leaned in to listen. "What's going on?"

"Just a little practice. After all, I can't have my little pets running out with a leash. It's bad for them. Why, they could get run over without their master to pull them off the road again."

"Practice? On what?"

"The neighbors, for now. But that elevator is starting to look very, very inviting. Perhaps I'll take a walk along the streets tonight, see if I can find a few new playmates. I'm sure that this city has plenty of young men just waiting for a chance to be...educated."

"Well, he still sounds like Kaito," Thimas muttered.

"Yeah. Nega-Kaito." Gus shook his head, speaking to the phone again. "You stay right there, Kami. I'm coming right back, and when I get there -"

"You'll what, Kitten? Purr for me again?"

Giving Thimas a look that promised full vengeance if the badger said a word, Gus stood up and carried the phone with him. He started pacing around the table, huffing to himself.

"Look. One way or another, I made this happen, but you gotta stop this before it gets completely out of control. What happens when the police get called, huh?"

"I believe the boys in blue are now the boys in black. Black leather is such a lovely look for them."

"Okay, the superheroes."

"A long enough cape makes for a delicious thong. And they look so much better in harnesses than spandex."

"Landlord."

"Oh, is that Srosha I hear complaining in the elevator now?" Kami chuckled on the other end. "Come back, Kitten. It'll be much more fun if you come to me instead of making me chase after you. Ta."

Click. The call ended, leaving Gus holding a phone that was completely dead in his hands. He sputtered, then slammed it down on a nonexistent receiver on the table. As soon as he let go, however, the phone yanked back on its cord, thumping against his bound friend.

Realizing that he'd walked the phone cord around Thimas until the badger was tied head to toe, Gus muttered an apology and started untying him.

"May I assume that we are in trouble?" Thimas asked.

"More than a little. The police were called and he already stripped them down, and I think he dealt with a super, as well."

"Lovely. Well, I suppose there's only one thing to do."

"I'd have already done it, except Greta has the van."

"Van? What - no, I don't mean run."

Thimas stood up, brushing himself off. The badger's underwear was halfway dry by now, but as he stood up, it was clear that it was still mostly transparent. The eyes of the entire café were on him, and Gus couldn't help but give those bouncing orbs a good glance of appreciation himself.

"Are you listening to me?" Thimas asked.

"Sorry, not really. Balls."

"Lions..."

"Sorry. What were you saying?"

"I said that it's time for drastic measures. First, we find a pawn shop."

"And second?"

"Second, we harmonize."

"...Can't we just steal a van and get out of here, instead?"

"Do you want to be known as Kitten for the rest of your life?"

"No!"

"Then no." Thimas patted him on the shoulder, picking up his damp clothes from the side of the table. "Pay the good fox, and meet me outside."

#

Gus made good on his promise to get Thimas a new instrument. However, 'new' in this case meant less 'untouched' and more 'not something the badger had before.' The hang drum was hardly a loud instrument, but considering its 'sophistication' - or at least, what the shop owner had claimed was particularly sophisticated about it - he figured that it would be something Thimas could work with.

The badger had managed to get dressed by the time that the lion had finished getting the instrument, though the clothes were still more than slightly damp. They clung to the older man from all sides, making his ass look bigger and his crotch rather bulgy...okay, very bulgy.

Thimas was still in the process of wringing out the bottom of his shirt when the lion held out the drum. As expected, there was a slight glare, followed by a sign.

"I suppose that was to be expected. No flutes?"

"None that he wanted to part with. You know how to play this thing?"

"Enough to get by," the badger said. "It'll come back to me."

"Not sure we got time for that..."

Gus looked up at NABSC again, shaking his head. There weren't storm clouds around the building, but there might as well be for how little time they had left. He didn't want to think about what Kami was doing to his neighbors at this point, nor what might be happening to them if they didn't succeed on this little mission.

"He has to know we're coming."

"Doubtlessly," Thimas acknowledged. "But that doesn't mean we can run off."

"You're the one that used to be a hero. I'm just a musician."

"Just a musician? Says the one that went on a quest for a magic guitar before he was 18..."

"That was a one-time thing. And I was reading a lot more comics back then."

"Congratulations. You've graduated from comics to hentai."

That wasn't particularly encouraging, but as much as he complained, he knew that the badger was right. Kami had to be dealt with, or Novus Ager was going to have a very, very powerful...creature, for lack of a better word, strolling about and changing everything.

Thimas finished dressing up, tapping the hang drum with his fingers a couple of times before nodding his satisfaction. The lion reached up and pulled his guitar free again, stroking his fingers along the strings.

It never needed tuning, but he often reached up and stroked the little knobs at the top in case they did. The guitar was magical, powerful, and it had been what kept him safe for years.

And now, it was useless. No matter how he played, he had never seen it do anything to Kami. He just hoped that Gus would have better luck.

"Ready?" he muttered.

"I suppose. Let's get back to NABSC."

They could tell that something had changed as soon as they entered the building. There was a sense of pressure in the air, hard and heavy, and both the badger and the lion looked at each other with a slight wince on their faces. Beyond that, there was a smell in the air, one that made the both of them more than slightly concerned.

Not musk, as they were both used to, but leather. Thick and hot, like it had been laying in the sun for too long, the smell of leather permeated the lobby of the building, and the few men there were definitely a little horned up on it. Gus could see their bulges growing, even dripping slightly, and he shook his head as he felt his own cock rising.

"Mmmph...Kami's reaching out..."

"Quite far, too. I'm surprised he can affect ventilation that much," Thimas muttered.

"What do you wanna bet he's got leather bands rustling about in there, looking for prey?"

"No bet."

"Me neither."

A few of the more amorous men recognized him, and he recognized them. A chubby lizard that looked like he was more than a little curious about 'Kitten,' as Kami had called him during that one...public...display, started making his way over. Gus tried to walk around him, but the lizard grabbed him by the tail, pulling him back.

"Hey, what's the rush?" the lizard muttered. "Come on, Kitten...where's your collar?"

"The name's Gus, not Kitten."

"Come on, where's that collar? You look so good in it. That, and nothing else."

Feeling a scaly hand dragging its way up his outer thigh, Gus grabbed for his guitar. Normally, he wouldn't have minded this in the slightest, but they were not exactly high on time. He stutter-stepped backwards to get some space -

Dum-dum-ding-dum...

The soft drum-beats of the hang drum pulled the attention of the lizard off of him, and Gus took advantage to pull himself further away. He glanced at Thimas, who seemed to be fending off two more horny men with his music. It didn't quite push them away the way that a soundwave from the guitar would have done, but it seemed to confuse them, focusing them away from the badger and -

The sudden collapse of the two bears was rather amusing, Gus had to admit. They suddenly lunged for each other, sucking face and groping each other all over. Pants went flying as they went down, and they struggled to see who would be on top.

Gus stepped over them, shaking his head.

"Redirection?"

"Something like that. Sometimes, it's better to shift magic than cancel it."

"Is that what you plan to do upstairs?"

"If I can. We'll find out what happens."

"...Think that Kami's really gonna do something with the landlord?" Gus asked.

"If he's genuinely heading up, yes. That man's been trying to kick Kaito out for years, but if he believes that he's genuinely got cause now, and if he's stupid enough to try and kick Kami's door down -"

"Kick it down? He's a naga, right?"

"It's a metaphor."

"Metaphor or not, we better stop him."

The elevator came quickly, and they rode it in silence. It opened up inside the building, this time, the outside passageway seemingly having chosen to move indoors again. Thimas and Gus walked around the corner -

"You bastard! You horny bastard!"

The landlord, a thicker, bulkier naga with red scales and broader shoulders, was already trapped. Gus and Thimas watched as leather straps, like tentacles, reached out and wrapped around the big snake, only to yank him back and into an open door. It slammed shut, and a deep, villainous laugh echoed from behind the door.

"...Shit."

"For once, I agree."

"We gotta go in there, don't we?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Can I just say I hate the idea of being a hero right now?"

"Noted."

"...Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck..."

The End