Keyhole

Baron Gauntlet and Mr. Riekart looked at each other, each noting the hesitance in the other's eyes, before the Baron pulled the bag off their prisoner's head. The Hexahedromancer's sly grin came into view, still smug even now.

"Afternoon gentlemen. Looking well, 'Doctor'. Did you enjoy my present?" The Baron punched him in the chest, the alien trickster gasping for breath. He reared back to smack him again, the doctor barely able to hold him back.

"How do we reverse what you've done," the Baron growls. The Hexahedromancer spat out a rhombohedron, which shattered into a key.

"Just stick this in the back of his neck," he replied. The Baron thanked him with another punch, knocking him unconscious.

----

The two men lingered on the balcony, the Martian breeze tugging at their clothes. The Baron held the key in his hand, his face inscrutable, as Riekart held his arm, waiting for him to put his thoughts into words.

"I'm afraid," the Baron started. "I haven't been afraid of anything since I put on the gauntlets. It never occurred to me that I could see you as anything but a rival, and now I don't know if I can return to that."

"I know, but the world needs Dr. Phantasm."

"And I need him too. But I want Mr. Riekart."

"Well, Mr. Riekart can stay for a while. I need time to study this anyhow." They stay like that for a while, neither acknowledging the keyhole in Riekart's neck.